THE

SOUNDING
OF THE
THIRD ANGEL

A. T. JONES
© 2019 BATTLE CREEK TABERNACLE

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Published in the USA

December 2019

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 CHAPTERS
The Wonderful Counselor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Righteousness of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Being Emptied of Self. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

A Teacher of Righteousness, According to Righteousness . . . 56

Spiritualism and the Carnal Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Relying Upon the Holy Bible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Receiving the Word as God Gives it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

The Blessing of Abraham. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

The Place of the Law in Righteousness by Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

The Name of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

True Sabbath Rest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Confidence in Christ as Redeemer, for He is Creator . . . . . . . . 178

 FOREWORD

Alonzo Trévier Jones (commonly known as A.T. Jones), along with

E.J. Waggoner and others were given a powerful, heartwarming mes-
sage to take to the church and to the world around the end of the 19th
century. Ellen White would say this about the message and the mes-
sengers: “The Lord in His mercy sent a most precious message to His
people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring
more prominently before the world the uplifted Savior, the sacrifice for
the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in
the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ,
which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of
God… This is the message that God commanded to be given to the
world. It is the third angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a
loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large
measure” (Testimony to Ministers, pg. 92).

The twelve chapters in this book come from a series of twen-

ty-four sermons preached by A.T. Jones during the 1893 General
Conference Session. As you read, you will notice many references to
“four years”, which refers back to the 1888 General Conference session,
where the Spirit of God was poured out in a large measure. As these
sermons were spoken and then taken down in shorthand, the editors
have felt it necessary to reformat and re-edit the material for optimum
understanding for the modern reader. Every effort has been made to
maintain the original intent of the speaker, while, at the same time,
making the concepts understandable in their written form. At the heart
of the messages is Jesus Himself as the uplifted Savior. Faith, grace, the
righteousness of Christ, the role of the law, and the true meaning of the
latter rain are just a few of the life-changing concepts you will find in
these pages.

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 It is our prayer that these messages will help re-ignite the fire
that burned in the hearts of the hearers of that day, and lead to the
hastening of the return of our dear Jesus who has waited so long for
“His bride to make herself ready.” Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
will return in the near future, and His message will soon run like “fire
in the stubble.” May the final sounding of the third angel go forth un-
hindered, ushering in the great day of the Lord – for His sake, we pray.

Editors

5
 CHAPTER ONE
The Wonderful Counselor

“I counsel you to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that you may be
rich; and white raiment that you may be clothed, and that the shame
of your nakedness does not appear, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve
that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous
therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any
man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with
him and he with Me” (Rev. 3:18-20). This is the counsel we want to
study tonight. I counsel you. Who is this Counselor? [Congregation:
“Christ.”] What is He called in the 14th verse? [Congregation: “Faithful
and True Witness.”] He will make quite a good Counselor, won’t He?

The faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the Creation

of God, comes and counsels you and me. Isn’t that a good deal of con-
descension, considering the place from whence the Counselor comes?
He has told us that we are miserable, wretched, poor, blind and naked
and that we do not know it. He has told us that we are lukewarm. Now
if we confess that that is so, we shall be ready to take His counsel and
appreciate it and will profit by His counsel, because it is only those per-
sons whom He counsels. Then brethren, let us not be so slow to take
this counsel and adopt it. Well then, He comes as a Counselor from
this time henceforth. Isn’t that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Then when you want to know whether you shall sell your
property, I suppose you will go ask your brother what to do? [Con-
gregation: “Ask the Counselor.”] When you want to know what to do,
you are going to ask some other man what to do, aren’t you? When I
want to know what to do, how is any man to tell me, when if he were in
my place, he would have to ask the same question as to what he would
do? How am I going to get any help from him, when he does not know
what he would do unless he were in the place where I am, and even
then he would have to ask counsel for himself?

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 What is the name He is given in Isaiah? [Congregation: “Won-
derful Counselor.”] The way it is printed is, “Wonderful, Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” That is the name
whereby He shall be called. What is the first part of His name? [Con-
gregation: “Wonderful.”] The second part? [Congregation: “Counsel-
or.”] What’s the next part? [Congregation: “Mighty God.”] And the
next part? [Congregation: Everlasting Father.”] And the last? [Congre-
gation: “Prince of Peace.”] He is “Wonderful” and “Counselor”, then
isn’t He a Wonderful Counselor? [Congregation: “Yes.”] I should say
so!

You will also remember that other passage in Isaiah 28:29,

where it says He is “wonderful in counsel.” And what else? “Excellent
in working.” Don’t forget that when He comes as a Counselor, He is
there as a Worker too, and the counsel which He gives is a worker – an
excellent worker who will perform the work, “for it is God who works
in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” So when God and
His counsel are allowed to work in you, He will give you both the desire
and the power to perform what pleases him.

So now we have this Counselor, the faithful and true Witness,

the wonderful Counselor, wonderful in counsel and excellent in work-
ing. Then when we have sought this counsel and obtained it, He is
going to be right there with us in the execution of the counsel, just as
much as He was when He first gave it to us. Isn’t that so? If we have not
learned that, there is no use for us to go any further at all. Unless we
depend fully upon His power, His character, His righteousness and His
life, we will never experience its work in our lives. If there is any other
consideration and any other way which we are to take, we might just
as well give up right now and stop. That being so, we could not go any
further without Him. Very good then, He is the Wonderful Counselor;
wonderful in counsel and excellent in working, and He says, “I am with
you to counsel and I am with you to execute.”

“I counsel you to buy from me gold tried in the fire.” Other

scriptures besides this passage show that nothing will satisfy us but
that gold which will stand the test of the fire. You will remember 1
Peter 1:4-6, where it says that; “By His great mercy He has given us
new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled,
and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept (protected)
7
by the power of God through faith for the salvation that is ready to be
revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a
season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:”
How are we kept? [Congregation: “By the power of God.”] Through
what? [Congregation: “Faith.”] For what purpose? [Congregation:
“Salvation.”] When? [Congregation: “Ready to be revealed at the last
time.”]

We might now read, “Ready to be revealed,” and could stop

right there and it would be so, for we have come to the “last time.” But
about this living hope. How are we kept? [Congregation: “By the power
of God.”] Through what? [Congregation: “Through faith.”] Wherein
you--do what? [Congregation: “Greatly rejoice.”] Do you now? I want
to know now, is that so? [Congregation: “Yes, yes.”] “Wherein you
greatly rejoice.” Do you? Then why do you go moping around with
your face drawn down? The time has come for us to believe the Scrip-
tures! Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteous-
ness. The Lord said it, and he greatly rejoiced that it was so. Is that so
tonight, that we greatly rejoice? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Tried and Precious Faith

“Wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a little while, if

need be, we are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” What is
manifold? [Congregation: “Many fold.”] We are in many fold temp-
tations and greatly rejoice all that time? How can that be? It can be
because God says so. And it is so, isn’t it? That is the only way I know
it can be, is because He says it is so. Now what is this for? “That the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes,
though it be tried with fire.” What is tried? [Congregation: “Faith.”] Are
you to expect your faith to be tried as with fire? Are you to expect your
faith to endure that test as gold passing through fire? [Congregation:
“Yes.”]

We will study this further. What care men take in this world
of the gold that perishes! Many hoard a great deal of gold, and great
buildings are erected--safe deposits, then they have a little box, and

8
lock it, put it in a bigger box, and lock that, and put it in a great safe
with lots of boxes, and that is locked again, and then a great steel gate
shuts up the whole thing and that is locked, and a guard walks around
it all night to see that it is safe. Hundreds of people in these large cities
are thus caring for the gold that perishes. Let me say to you, my breth-
ren and sisters that the trial of your faith, I care not how weak it may
be, is more precious in the sight of our Wonderful Counselor, it is more
precious in the sight of God, than all the gold and jewels in all the safe
deposit vaults that are on earth.

Do not be afraid that He is going to forget it. What does He

call it? “More precious than gold that perishes”. Who is it that says that?
The Wonderful Counselor, the Lord Himself. Let us then thank Him
that He regards our weak, trembling faith like that. Well then brethren,
haven’t we right there one of the greatest possible encouragements that
the Lord can offer? Why people bewail their weak faith I do not know.
Sometimes you say, “I haven’t any faith.” Well, the Lord says you have,
and I say, Thank Him for what you have. I do not care how little you
have, though it be like the mustard seed, thank Him that you have it
and thank Him that it is more precious to Him than all the gold and
wealth of this earth.

That is the way the Lord regards your faith. You are not to
question whether you have faith or not. God says you have it, and it is
so. Let us read Romans 10:6-8: “But the righteousness which is of faith
speaks in this way - do not say in your heart, who shall ascend into
heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above) Or, who shall de-
scend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
But what does it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in
your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.”

Then it is right to bewail and wonder whether we have faith

or not? Not so. God has planted faith in every heart that is born into
this world, by that Light which lights every man which comes into the
world. God will cause that faith to grow exceedingly and He will re-
veal His righteousness to us as it grows, “from faith to faith.” Where
does faith come from anyway? God gave it to us. Who is the Author
of faith? Christ! And that light which lights every man that comes into
the world is Jesus Christ. This is the faith that is in every man’s heart.
If each one uses the faith which he has, he will never have any lack of
faith, but if he will not use the faith that he has, how in the world is he
9
going to get any more? Then we have faith, have we not? And the trial
of your faith is “more precious” than all the gold that ever was on this
earth.

Mark this, it is more precious in the sight of God. Not that gold
is precious in His sight--that is not the thought at all. It is more pre-
cious in the sight of God than all the gold would be in the sight of a
man. How precious would all the gold be if a man had it all? Would not
he think himself rich? Would not he pride himself upon it wonderful-
ly? Then do not forget that the trial of that faith which you have--no
matter how small it may be--is more precious in the sight of God than
all the gold of this world would be in the sight of a man.

So then “the trial of your faith, being much more precious

than of gold which perishes, though it be tried with fire,” is precious in
the sight of God. Who is the most interested in that process? [Congre-
gation: “The Lord.”] Assuredly! For I cannot express how precious it is
in His sight. My idea of how precious it is in His sight is just as far from
the reality of it as my thoughts are from His thoughts. Consequently,
He is the most interested person in all the universe in the trial of our
faith, in the working of our faith, and all the process of it. Isn’t it a gift
from Him? Isn’t it to His interest? This is the true light, in which we
should view this matter.

Then we read further: “Though it be tried with fire, that it

might be found unto praise and honor and glory, at the appearing of
Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love.” Do we not? He says we
do, and it is so. “In whom, though now you do not see Him, yet believ-
ing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Is not that so?
Assuredly it is. But, brethren, I often think of that verse “Whom having
not seen, you love,” and believing it is so, I wonder what in the world it
will be like when we do see Him! And the blessedness of it is, we will
not have to wait long for that now. [Congregation: “Praise the Lord.”]

Trials Are Not “Strangers” To Us

There is another passage I will refer to found in the 12th verse

of the 4th chapter of 1 Peter. It begins with, “Beloved.” Who? “Beloved.”
10
Is that so? How, brothers and sisters, can we be anything else than the
gladdest people on earth when God talks to us like that? He comes
and makes Himself the Wonderful Counselor and wants to counsel
and talk with us and the first word He says is, “Beloved.” Now we have
thought many a time that when the angel came to Daniel directly and
said, “O man, greatly beloved,” that it was quite a personal statement. It
can be no more personal than this is to you and me. He comes Himself
and says, “Beloved.” Then, “think it not strange concerning the fiery
trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto
you.”

The word to us now, brethren, is, “beloved.” Let us use the

word in that way. Beloved, are we to treat the fiery trials as strangers
henceforth? There is nothing strange about it. Then it will not surprise
us when we meet them. You know a great many people are somewhat
diffident and bashful, and when they meet a stranger suddenly face-
to-face they are quite out of countenance. Now if you and I are going
to be diffident and bashful about the trials – we are going to come face
to face with some of them one of these days (one particular brawny
one), and then if we are diffident and bashful at all, we will be put out
of countenance. But just as certainly as anybody is put out of counte-
nance by a trial, just so certainly has the enemy got the victory there.
That is the way he wants to catch us off our guard, so that we will be
startled and put out of countenance for even a moment, and he will get
in his fiery darts and wound us.

The Lord comes and counsels us like this: “Think it not

strange.” So then, when we meet these fiery trials we are not going
to meet a stranger. Do you see? We will be acquainted. We will know
them. I do not care how bashful or diffident a person is, when he meets
an acquaintance he is not astonished at any sudden meeting. He will
not be put out of countenance, but he is glad to meet his acquaintance.
Then the Lord wants us to be so well acquainted with fiery trials that,
no matter how suddenly we meet them, we can say, “Alright, glad to
meet you sir. I know you, come along.”

Then when he tells us this, let us not think it strange concern-

ing the fiery trials “as though some strange thing happened” unto us.
We are not to meet them and deal with them as strangers, but as ac-
quaintances. Not only that, but we are to meet them as helpers on to
Zion. James told us long ago, “My brethren, count it all joy” when we
11
fall into diverse temptations. What did he call us there? “My breth-
ren.” James 1:2. He calls us “My brethren” here, and other places we
are called “Beloved.” What does “divers” mean? It means different.
What does Peter call them? “Manifold.” Then, my brethren, count it all
joy when we fall into “divers,” diverse, different, and various kinds of
temptations. So we see by these different definitions that the thought
is, count it all joy when we fall into all kinds of temptations, and we
will count none of them strange, because we are to regard them all as
acquaintances.

We read further: “But rejoice inasmuch as you” shall be par-

takers? Is that what it says? Oh no, but “rejoice, inasmuch as you are
partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” That is the point. In James he says, “My
brethren.” Now let us read a text that will connect both of them. Heb.
2:10-12: “For it became Him, for whom are all things and by whom are
all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of
their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifies
and they who are being sanctified are all of one: for which reason He is
not ashamed to call them brothers.”

This is why He calls us brothers, and why we are to count it

all joy when we fall into diverse temptations; for He has been there.
He has met every one of them. He has met each temptation to its fullest
extent. He has passed through all these things for us. Then He comes
back and says to us, I will also pass through them with you. He passed
through them alone for us first; now He passes through them with us.
“I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none
with me.” But thank the Lord; God was with Him, for “the Father has
not left Me alone.” Thank the Lord that He had the royal courage to do
it alone, trusting only the Father to be with Him. And oh, how good
He is, not to ask us to try it alone. No. He comes and says, “I will go
with you through all these trials”. My brethren, He will go with you.
So then, this is why we are not to count them strange. He calls us His
brethren, and He has passed through every one of these trials and is
well acquainted with them, and therefore we are not to count them as
strangers.

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 Christ Is Our Victory

Is Christ a stranger to trials? No. How many trials did He meet?

All. How many trials that you will ever meet, did He meet? Every one
of them. To what extent did He bear the contest upon each one of the
temptations? To the fullest extent on every point. With whom was He
contending on these things? Satan. Satan knows more tricks and trials
and temptations than any man would ever be obliged to meet alone,
doesn’t he? And he tried every one of them on “my Brother,” did he
not? He tried every temptation on Jesus. To what extent of his effort
did he have to try each of them on Jesus? To the fullest extent.

Didn’t he have to exert all the power he knows on each and

every single point in the temptations and trials of Jesus? He did. Didn’t
Satan try everything that he knows in every way, everything that he
could possibly invent on Him? And didn’t he try it to the fullest possi-
ble extent that he could try it? Yes. Well then, has not all his reservoir
of trickery, of temptation, and trial, been exhausted on Christ? And
hasn’t he exhausted all the power that he has to use in any of these trials
and temptations? Yes. Well then, when I am in Jesus, and when He is in
me, how much power has Satan left to affect me with? [Congregation:
“None.”] How many remaining tricks does he know to play on me?
There are none. Do you not see then, that when we are in Christ we
have the victory, and we have it now! Victory is not the only word used
however, we also have triumph, and we have it now!

Now 2 Cor. 2:14 says: “Now thanks be unto God.” When? Now.
“Which always causes us to triumph.” When? Always. Is that so? [Con-
gregation: “Yes.”] “…Always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes
manifest the savor of his knowledge.” How? By us. Is that so? And
makes manifest the savor of his knowledge by (through) us.” Where?
[Congregation: “In every place.”] Think of it. When is this to take
place? Now and always, that is when. How? By or through us. Where?
Everywhere. Then I would like to know why in the world we do not
have the victory in Christ? I would like to know what is the reason that
we are not conquerors even now? “This is the victory that overcomes
the world, even our faith.” Is it? Yes, that is the victory. Christ is our
victory. His victory is my victory, isn’t it? Yes. Well then, when we are
in Him we are perfectly safe, are we not? Are we safe as long as we are
13
in Him? Yes.

Christ is Our Protection

Do you not remember way back in olden times that they had
cities of refuge? Sometimes when an accident happened (as when an
ax flew off the handle and struck a man and killed him), another man
standing by would (without thinking) fly into a passion and would go
about to take revenge in that matter right off. What was the first man
to do? He was just to strike out with all his might for the city of refuge,
(perhaps even being pursued by the other man with all his might). If
the man made it into the city, then what happened? He was safe and
the other man could not touch him, and he was perfectly free. Suppose
he went out of town? Just as certain as he went out and that other man
found him, his blood was upon his own head. He was responsible. But
he was safe there as long as he stayed in the refuge. And he was to stay
there until the high priest died.

When the high priest died, the man was perfectly free, and he
could go out anywhere and the other man could not touch him at all,
no matter how much he wanted to. Speaking of Abraham, it is said, “By
two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might
have strong consolation who have fled for refuge.” We have done mis-
chief. We have sinned. What are the wages of sin? Death? Yes, death.
Then who is after us? Death is. Who had the power of death? Satan.
Then who is after us? Satan. And we fled for refuge to lay hold on that
hope set before us. Where is that hope? [Answer: “In Christ.”] Who is
our refuge? [Answer: “In Christ.”] Who is our city of refuge? [Answer:
“Christ.”] Who is our enemy? [Answer: “Satan,” “death.”] Now then,
when we are in Christ our refuge, can Satan touch us? He cannot. How
do you know? It says so. Suppose we go out before the priesthood clos-
es, what happens then? Satan can and he will smite us, and our blood
will be on our own head. If we go out before the priesthood closes, we
have no protection and he will take us.

If the man would remain in that city for ten or fifteen years,
surely then he would have grown strong enough to meet his enemy,

14
wouldn’t he? He would have gotten experience there and therefore he
could say, “I am strong enough now I am not afraid of any enemy; now
I can go out. I can go out now, I am all right. That other fellow has gone
away now and forgotten all about this.” But he is not able to meet the
enemy, is he? Where is he able alone to meet the enemy? Only when
he is in the city. And in the city, he doesn’t really have to meet him at
all, does he? [Congregation: “The city meets him.”] The walls of the city
meet the enemy. That shield of faith that quenches all the fiery darts of
the wicked--that shield of faith which is Jesus Christ, is the walls of our
city of refuge, and the fiery darts of the enemy cannot get past it at all.

Well then, our strength and our safety forever, are only inside
of our refuge, aren’t they? And then when the priesthood closes, we
can go everywhere in this universe—but not outside of Christ. Then
we can go everywhere, and can the enemy do us any damage? No sir.
Let us stay in the City, brethren; let us stay in the Refuge to which we
have fled, where our safety is. And when we are there, haven’t we the
victory? Yes, sir. In Him we have the victory. We can meet the tempta-
tion then with joy. Why, we have the victory before we meet tempta-
tion, haven’t we? Then shouldn’t we be glad? Wouldn’t you rather have
a battle when you know you have a victory before you start in, than to
have no battle at all? Then let us do some of that kind of fighting. Come
on, what is the use of being afraid? The victory is ours! Of course, if we
go in calculating to be whipped, we had better not fight. The one who
goes in expecting to be whipped had better run before he begins. The
Lord does not want us to partake in such a fight as that.

Our Brother did not partake in such a fight as that. No sir. And
He doesn’t propose that we shall. He wants us to know our victory. He
wants us to know our confidence. He wants us to know our strength;
He wants us to know the power that is ours and He wants us to know
our duty. And then, when the contest comes, we will know how to
meet it. We meet it in Him. We meet it by Him. We meet it with the
shield of faith and the fiery darts of the enemy are quenched, and there
is no question about it. Then it is in suffering, where we meet the pow-
er, the victory, and the elevating presence of Christ. When the trials
come, we stand with Him and we know that we cannot stand without
Him. “Count it all joy” – let us do it! Think it not strange when the
fiery trials come as though some strange thing happened to you, but
rejoice. “Rejoice, forasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s suffering,
that when His glory shall be revealed in you, you shall be glad also with
15
exceeding joy.”

Gold Tried in the Fire

Then we need gold tried in the fire, to meet these trials, do

we not? We need something that will stand the tests that will come.
“Those who bear every test have heeded the testimony of the True
Witness, and will receive the latter rain that they may be translated.”
Brethren, is there not a lot of good cheer in that thought? The latter
rain is to prepare us for translation. Now, where is the latter rain to fall,
and when does it? Now is the time for the latter rain: and when is the
time for the loud cry? [Congregation: “Now.”] What is it to prepare us
for? [Congregation: “For translation.”] It brings good cheer to me that
the tests that the Lord is giving us now are to fit us for translation. And
when He comes and speaks to you and me, it is because He wants to
translate us, but He cannot translate sin, can He? Then the only pur-
pose that He has in showing us the depth and breadth of sin is that He
may save us from it and translate us.

Then, shall we become discouraged when He shows us our

sins? No. Let us thank Him that He wants to translate us and He wants
to do this so much, that He wishes to get our sins out of the way as soon
as possible. Brethren, let us believe the Lord right along, all the time.
Then we need something that will bear as severe a test when tried, as
gold is required to bear in purifying it in the fire. What does the Coun-
selor tell us to get? What does He tell us to buy? [Voice: “Gold tried in
the fire.”] That very thing is needed right now in order to meet the tri-
als that are coming. No, it is for the trials that are here now. We do not
care for what is coming, we need that now. We need that to meet the
trials that are here, and that is the very thing that the Counselor says:
“Buy of me, I have a supply.” He has a supply, for He has manufactured
it. He has the thing that will bear the test, for it has already borne the
test. It has borne every test that will ever be required of anybody again.
The test was born in His sufferings. Through sufferings the gold is pu-
rified, made white, tried and perfected and proven to be the genuine
article.

16
 We have the definition of that by the Spirit of the Lord. Gold
tried in the fire is love, it is “faith and love.” Read it in Galatians 5:6: “for
in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumci-
sion, but faith which works by love.” In other places it is expressed
“faith and obedience.” What is obedience? [Voice: “The expression of
love.”] In the book Steps to Christ, p. 64 it says that, “Obedience is not a
mere outward compliance, but the service of love.” Then, when the tes-
timony speaks of faith and obedience, it is simply “faith which works
by love.” The expressions in the testimony of “faith and obedience” and
“faith and love” mean the same thing as the expression of the Scripture
“faith which works by love.” They are simply different modes of ex-
pressing genuine spiritual faith, for in Christ nothing avails but “faith
which works by love.”

Obedience is the service of love, and Jesus tells us to buy of

Him gold tried in the fire, which is faith and love, the faith which
works by love, the genuine article of faith. What is it that is to be tried
with severe fiery trials? It is your faith, “which is more precious than
gold, though it be tried in the fire”. Then, you see, as every man’s faith
is to be so tried, he needs the faith that has stood the trial. Then we have
the testimony: “Here are they which keep the commandments of God
and”--have faith in Jesus? No. The “have” is not in there. They keep the
commandments of God and [keep] the faith of Jesus.

That is the genuine article; that is the faith which, in Him, en-
dured the test. That is the faith which met every fiery trial that Satan
knows, and all the power that Satan could rally, that faith endured the
test. So then, He comes and says to us, “You buy of me that faith that
has endured the test, “gold tried in the fire.” So in the expression, “buy
of me that faith that has endured,” is not that the same line of thought
that we have learned in, “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ
Jesus”?

When that mind is in me that was in Him, will not that mind
do in me precisely what it did in Him? How is it that we serve the law
of God anyhow? “With the mind I serve the law of God” (Rom. 7:25).
Christ in this world, every moment served the law of God. How did He
do it? With the mind. By what process of the mind did He do it? He did
it by faith. Then, does He not tell you and me to buy of Him the faith of
Jesus? Did not the faith of Jesus keep the commandments of God per-
fectly, all the time? And is not that the faith that works by love? Love is
17
the fulfilling of the law.

Then is not that the third angel’s message, when He says,

“Come and buy of me gold tried in the fire, (love and faith) and white
raiment (righteousness of Christ) that you may be clothed, that the
shame of thy nakedness do not appear”? So we see how it is that the
mind that was in Christ, will stand all of the trials that this world can
bring. Is not the mind of Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever?
Will the mind of Christ in Him do differently from the mind of Christ
in me or in any other man? No. The mind of Christ was whose mind?
[Congregation: “The mind of God.”] God was in Him in the flesh.

Buy from Him

How shall we buy? Read Isa. 55:1: “Ho, everyone that thirsts.”
Brethren, have we not become pretty thirsty by all that the Lord has
said in the last few days? I know brethren who have come to me and
talked, and they were just about perishing of thirst, they were almost
ready to drop of thirst. Then these words are to you and me. “Ho!”—
Just think, he wants to call the people’s attention so He calls loudly:
“Ho! Everyone that thirsts! Come to the waters.” “Come.” When He
said to Peter: “Come,” could Peter come? Yes. What, come on the wa-
ter? [Congregation: “On the word, Come.”] Yes, by that word Peter
walked on the water.

Then, when he forgot the word and thought he was about to

sink, he said, “Lord, save me.” He could not get him, could He? He
started, but forgot the power of the word, the faith slipped, and he
thought He could not get to him, and he cried, “Lord, save me.” Then
the Lord put forth His hand. He did not wait for Peter to get to Him,
but put forth His hand and lifted Him up. My brother or my sister, if
you have mustered up courage to start on the word, “Come,” and have
forgotten the power of it, and your faith has slipped because of the
storm that was about you, you can say, “Lord, save me,” and He will
reach out His hand and save you.

“Come to the waters, and he that has no money, come.” He

tells us to buy, and whoever has no money, He will attend to the buy-
18
ing, He will see that we get the article. And that is also what He said to
those who thought they had money, and did not know they had none.
But that means us; that means you and me. And He comes with those
words, “beloved” and “brethren.” “Without money, buy and eat; come
buy wine and milk without money and without price.” The same thing
is in Isa. 52:3, “For thus says the Lord, you have sold yourselves for
nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.”

How in the world can we get back when we have sold our-
selves? What did we get? Nothing. Now if He should ask anything from
us to get back, how in the world can we do it? We sold ourselves for
nothing, and if it costs us anything to get back, that would mean ever-
lasting ruin for us, wouldn’t it? So then, we must settle down on that
one thing that it does not cost anything for us to get back. “You have
sold yourselves for nothing, and you shall be redeemed for nothing.” It
cost the Lord something, however. It cost Him everything. But all this
He gives us, so that it costs us nothing. The price was paid, but not by
us.

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and
your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and
eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline
your ears and come unto me. Hear, and your soul shall live.” What is it
that you are to do that your soul shall live? [Congregation: “Hear.”] Do
you hear, brethren? Have you heard the invitation? Do you live? You
have heard of the creative power and the wonder-working power of
Jesus Christ, and having heard it, do you live by it? Do you live in Him
and by Him and to Him? Back there in the wilderness Moses lifted up
a serpent, and what were they to do? “Look and live.” And as the ser-
pent was lifted up in the wilderness and they were to live, so the Son of
Man was lifted up that whosoever should look to Him should live. But
here it is stated, Hear, and ye shall live. God had the plan fixed that we
should speak and live, but Moses spoiled it.

Look, Hear, Speak and Live

In the 20th of Numbers we read that the Lord told Moses there

19
when the people were murmuring for water, to go and “speak to the
rock,” and it should bring forth water. Moses went up and said, “Listen
now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?”
And he smote the rock twice. It was then that he spoiled God’s splen-
did figure that He would have set up, that all we were to do was to
speak. For the rock had been smitten when they entered the desert.
The record says, when the people were thirsty, the Lord told Moses to
go up to Horeb and that He would stand before him on the rock. He
told him to smite the rock with the rod that was in his hand, that the
people might drink. He did that, and the water flowed out. What was
that rock? [Congregation: “Christ.”]

Then why did he smite the rock the second time? Christ is
not to die the second time for you and me. The Lord wanted to show
us this in that splendid figure that He was about to set up, but Moses
forgot His word. He did not believe Him, and thought that He was to
do as he did before. He forgot that the Lord said, “Go and speak to
the rock”, so he smote it, and spoiled the figure. Then God said unto
him, “Because you did not believe Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the
children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into
the land which I have given them.” Brethren, the Lord Himself cannot
keep us from sinning when we do not believe Him. Do not forget that.
The Lord did not intend that Moses should do as he did, but Moses did
not believe the Lord. Why did not the Lord keep him from sinning? He
could not, when Moses did not believe Him. Then it becomes you and
me, whenever God speaks to us, to take Him just as He says. Then He
will keep us from sinning.

Christ told His disciples that night that they would all forsake
Him and flee. They said, “No, we will not. No sir. You are mistaken.”
Peter said, “Though all forsake you, I will not.” Before the cock crew,
he denied Him three times, although he had said, “Though I should
die with you, yet will I not deny you.” Who was right? Christ. And they
all said the same thing, but they all fled because of their unbelief. If
they had believed what He had said, would they have fled? Wouldn’t
He have saved the flock? Brethren, what we want to do is to believe the
Lord. Undoubtedly Moses thought when the Lord told him to speak
to the rock, that he meant to say as he did before--to go and smite
it. He should have listened to what the Lord said. That is for you and
me. “Consider what I say, and the Lord will give you understanding
of all these things.” So then, what we are to do is to look and live; hear
20
and live; speak and live, so let us do it. The rock has been smitten.
Speak and He will give forth the water of life. Brethren, that is from our
Counselor. “Hear and your souls shall live, and I will make an everlast-
ing covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

Christ our Righteousness

And we have it here further, “Buy of me gold tried in the fire,

and white raiment that you may be clothed.” The figure is that of a
garment that is woven in the loom of heaven, in which there is not a
single thread of human making.” Brethren, that garment was woven in
a human body. The human body—the flesh of Christ—was the loom,
was it not? That garment was woven in Jesus; in the same flesh that you
and I have, for He took part of the same flesh and blood that we have.
That flesh that is yours and mine, that Christ bore in this world—that
was the loom in which God wove that garment for you and me to wear
in the flesh, and He wants us to wear it now, as well as when the flesh is
made immortal in the end! What was the loom? Christ in His human
flesh. What was it that was made there? [Congregation: “The garment
of righteousness.”] And it is for all of us.

The righteousness of Christ—the life that He lived—for you

and for me, the life that we are considering tonight, that is the gar-
ment. God the Father—God was in Christ reconciling the world to
Himself. “His name shall be called Immanuel”—that is, “God with us.”
Now then, He wants that garment to be ours, but does not want us to
forget who is the Weaver. It is not ourselves, but it is He who is with
us. It was God in Christ. Christ is to be in us, just as God was in Him,
and His character is to be in us, just as God was in Him, and His char-
acter is to be woven and transformed into us through these sufferings
and temptations and trials which we meet. And God is the weaver,
but not without us. It is the cooperation of the divine and the human-
-the mystery of God in you and me—the same mystery that was in
the gospel and that is the third angel’s message. This is the word of the
Wonderful Counselor.

You may ask, “Was not the character woven without us?”

21
Yes, but it will not become ours personally without us. So we are led
through these fiery trials and temptations to be partakers of the char-
acter of Christ. These trials and temptations that we meet reveal to us
our characters and the importance of having His. It is through these
same temptations that He passed, that we become partakers of His
character, bearing about in the body the righteousness of the life of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Of course the garment was woven without us, and
the beauty of it comes in that we are to have that garment as complete
as He is. We are to grow up into Christ, until we all come in the unity
of the faith. It is the same message still, until we all come in the unity of
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man,
“unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

How tall are we to be in character before we leave this world?

As tall as Christ. What is to be our stature? That of Christ. We are to
be perfect men reaching “unto the measure of the stature of the full-
ness of Christ.” Who is the Weaver? [Congregation: “God.”] In whose
eye is the pattern? God’s. Many times, brethren, the threads seem all
tangled when we look at them. The meshes seem all out of shape, and
there is no symmetry at all to the figure; there is no beauty at all to the
pattern as we see it. But the pattern is not of our making. We are not
the Weaver. Although the threads become tangled and the shuttle as
it goes through gets all clogged and we do know how it is all coming
out, who is sending the shuttle? God sends the shuttle, and it will go
through. You need never mind, if the threads get tangled and you can
see nothing beautiful in it. God is the weaver and can He untangle the
threads? Assuredly, He will untangle them.

When we look for the symmetry of the pattern and see it all
awry and the colors intermingled and the threads drawn through this
way and that and the figure seems spoiled, who is making the figure
anyhow? God, of course. Whose loom contains the pattern of the fig-
ure in its completeness? And who is the pattern? Christ is the pattern,
and do not forget, “no man knows the Son but the Father.” You and I
cannot shape our lives on the pattern. We do not know Him. We can-
not see clearly enough to discern the One who shapes the pattern or to
know how to shape it right, even if we were doing the weaving.

Brethren, God is doing the weaving. He will carry that process

on. God sees the pattern in its completeness before it is done. It is in
His eye perfected, when to our eye it all seems tangled and awry. Breth-
22
ren, let Him weave away. Let Him carry on His blessed plan of weaving
through all our life and experience the precious pattern of Jesus Christ.
The day is coming and is not far off when the last shuttle will be shot
through, the last thread will be laid on, the last point in the figure will
be met completely and sealed with the seal of the living God. There
we shall wait only for Him that we may be like Him because we shall
see Him as he is. Brethren, is He not a wonderful Counselor? Oh, let
us take His counsel tonight. Let us take the blessed faith that has been
tried and all that he tells us, for it is all our own. God has given it. It is
mine. It is yours. Let us thank Him and be glad.

23
 CHAPTER TWO
The Righteousness of God

The place where we were in the Scriptures in this series of lessons is

that counsel of the True Witness, and the second thing that He tells
us to buy. We studied the first the other night. “I counsel you to buy
of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich.” Our study tonight
begins with the next thing: “I counsel you to buy of me white raiment,
that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does
not appear.” What is that raiment? [Congregation: “Righteousness.”]
Whose righteousness? [Congregation: “Christ’s.”] Whose is that?
[Congregation: “The righteousness of God.”] Whose are we to seek?
[Congregation: “The righteousness of God.”]

What is righteousness? [Congregation: “Right doing.”] Is

righteousness right doing? [Congregation: “Yes.”] [Voice: “All thy
commandments are righteousness.”] What are they to us? What do
they say? [Voice: “Do.”] Do they? The commandments require doing,
do they? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] The first of all the commandments
is, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” and the
second is like unto it. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Mat-
thew 22:40). Righteousness is right doing, that’s plain enough.

Whose righteousness are we to seek? [Congregation: “God’s

righteousness.”] Whose are we to have? [Congregation: “God’s.”]
Whose right doing are we to have? [Congregation: “Christ’s.”] But
whose right doing is in Christ? [Congregation: “God’s.”] Christ did
not do anything of Himself. He says, “Of mine own self I can do noth-
ing” (John 5:30). Whose right doing do we find in Christ? [Congrega-
tion: “God’s.”] “God was in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:19). Whose right doing
are we to have? [Congregation: “God’s.”] Now is that so? [Congrega-
tion: “Yes sir.”] Will you stick to that for a week? [Congregation: “Yes
sir.” Elder Wm. Hutchinson said: “For life.”]
24
 All right. But if some people in this audience will stick to that
for a week, I shall be happy. And so will they, because there are some
here who are not sticking to it at all. They don’t have it and they don’t
know it, and there are a good many of them too. For that reason, we
want clearly to understand as we start, what kind of raiment it is that
we are to buy--what we are after. Whose right doing is it that we are to
have? [Congregation: “God’s.”] Whose righteousness are we to seek?
That is what we are to find out in this lesson.

In order to find out what this righteousness is to us now, let

us turn to Joel, the second chapter, and 23rd verse, and notice also the
marginal reading. “Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in
the Lord your God, for He has given you the former rain moderately
and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and
the latter rain.” Now what is in the margin where it says, “He has given
you the former rain?” “A teacher of righteousness.” “He has given you
the former rain moderately.” What is meant by “moderately”? What
was the former rain at Pentecost? Was it then “A teacher of righteous-
ness?” “He has given you a teacher of righteousness according to righ-
teousness.”

Was that the former rain? And He will give you “the rain, the
former rain, and the latter rain,” as at the first. What will the latter rain
be? “A teacher of righteousness” again. According to what? [Congre-
gation: “Righteousness.”] But what is another expression for the latter
rain? [Congregation: “The outpouring of the Spirit.”] What is another
one? [Congregation: “The times of refreshing.”] What is the latter rain
to the third angel’s message? [Congregation: “The loud cry.”] What is
the latter rain in connection with the fall of Babylon? It is the bestowal
of that power and glory with which the angel of Revelation 18 comes
down and lightens the earth.

The Time is Near

Now let us read from the Review and Herald of November

22nd, these words: “The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of
the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness

25
of Christ. … This is the beginning of the light of the third angel, whose
glory shall fill the whole earth.” “Yet the work will be cut short in righ-
teousness” (Romans 9:28). What “work will be cut short in righteous-
ness”? [Congregation: “God’s work.”] “The message of Christ’s righ-
teousness is to sound from one end of the world to the other. This is
the glory of God which closes the work of the third angel.”

What is this message of Christ’s righteousness? “This is the be-

ginning of the light of the third angel, whose glory shall fill the whole
earth.” Now, “This is the glory of God which closes the work of the
third angel.” Then, when we have come to that time, what time have
we reached? [Congregation: “The loud cry of the message.”] We have
reached the time when God is going to close it up. That is the glory that
closes the work of the message.

Now another thing. What is that first expression which we

have just read? “He will cut it short in righteousness.” Then when that
message of God’s righteousness--the righteousness of God, which is
by faith of Jesus Christ, God’s right doing--when that is received and
is allowed to be carried on and is held by His people, what does that
mean about the work of God on earth? It will be but a short time until
the whole thing is done. Then, when we reach the time of the latter
rain and the loud cry, when we reach the time of the angel coming
down from heaven having that great power, when all these things are
coming together, we have but a short time. Studying the things that
are before us to see what is soon to come upon us leads us face to face
with six or seven different events that prove to us that very shortly the
work will be closed up. We are now in the midst of the scenes that
close up this world’s history.

We know that the latter rain is the loud cry of the third angel’s
message and it is the beginning of that message of glory that light-
ens the earth. But the latter rain is also the teaching of righteousness.
When did that message of the righteousness of God, as such, come to
us as a people? [Congregation: “Four years ago.”] Where? [Congrega-
tion: “At Minneapolis.”] Yes. Now that message of the righteousness
of Christ is the loud cry. It is the latter rain. Are you ready now to
receive the latter rain? We have been praying here for the latter rain.
Now there is the connection. The testimonies tell us what it is and Joel
tells us what it is. I simply ask now, are you ready to receive the latter
rain? That is, are you ready to receive God’s message of righteousness,
26
according to righteousness?

Let us look at that a little further. Joel says, according to the

margin, that it is a teacher of righteousness, that which brings the
teaching of righteousness according to righteousness. Whose idea of
righteousness? [Congregation: “God’s”] No, mine. [Congregation:
“No.”] Yes, mine will do! [Congregation: “No.”] Why? If I receive the
righteousness of Christ according to my idea, is not that enough? Is
not that receiving the latter rain? Is not that receiving the righteous-
ness of Christ? [Congregation: “No sir. It is your own righteousness.”]
But that is the problem with a good many people who have heard this
message of the righteousness of Christ. They have received the mes-
sage of the righteousness of Christ according to their own idea of what
His righteousness is, and they have not the righteousness of Christ at
all.

Receive the Message as God has Given it

Now let us ask again, how are we to receive that message? How
is that to be given? “According to righteousness.” How then is it to be
received? “According to righteousness.” It is given “according to righ-
teousness,” and we must receive it “according to righteousness.” We
must receive it as it is given. But let us dwell further upon that thought,
and I am in no hurry to get away from it either. When we receive the
teaching, that teaching of righteousness “according to righteousness,”
we must receive it according to God’s idea of righteousness and not
according to our own measure of it. And he who thinks of receiving
that message of Christ’s righteousness according to his own idea of it
will miss it entirely.

We are to receive it according to God’s idea of it and nothing

else than God’s idea of righteousness, nothing else than that is righ-
teousness. When it was presented four years ago and all along since,
some accepted it just as it was given. They were glad of the news that
God had a righteousness that would pass the judgment and would
stand accepted in His sight. A righteousness that is a good deal better
than anything that people could manufacture by years and years of

27
hard work.

People had worn out their souls almost, trying to manufac-

ture a sufficient degree of righteousness to stand through the time of
trouble and meet the Savior in peace when He comes, but they had not
accomplished it. These were so glad to find out that God had already
manufactured a robe of righteousness and offered it as a free gift to
everyone that would take it. This righteousness would answer now and
in the time of the plagues and in the time of judgment and to all eterni-
ty, and they received it gladly just as God gave it, and heartily thanked
the Lord for it. Others would not have anything to do with it at all but
rejected the whole thing.

Others seemed to take a middle position. They did not fully

accept it, but neither did they openly reject it. They thought to take a
middle position and go along with the crowd, if the crowd went that
way. That is the way they hoped to receive the righteousness of Christ
and the message of the righteousness of God. Others deliberately dis-
counted the message about fifty percent and counted that discounted
version as if it was the righteousness of God. And so, all the way be-
tween open, free, and deliberate surrender (acceptance) of it and the
open, deliberate, and positive rejection of it, the compromisers have
been scattered ever since. Unfortunately, those who have taken that
compromising position are no better prepared tonight to discern what
the message of the righteousness of Christ is, then they were four years
ago.

Some of these brethren, since the Minneapolis meeting, I have

heard myself say “amen” to preaching, to statements that were utterly
heathen and yet they thought that it was the righteousness of Christ.
Some of those who stood so openly against the true message at that
time, and voted with uplifted hand against it, I have heard say “amen”
to statements that were as openly and decidedly papal as the papal
church itself can state them. That is something I shall bring in at a
future lesson and will let you see what the doctrine of the Catholic
church is as to justification by faith. “Why,” says one, “I didn’t know
that the Catholic church believes in justification by faith.” Oh, yes, she
does. Yes, indeed she does. You can read it out of her books. Says one,
“I thought they believed in justification by works.” They do and they
do not believe in anything else, but they pass it off under the head of
justification by faith. And they are not the only people in the world
28
that are doing it (I mean the members of the Catholic church.). They
are not the only ones that are doing it.

So I appeal to all of us to come together now and lay aside ev-

erything, every preconceived notion, every thought of just how this or
that should be. Let us come together now and hear the message of the
righteousness of Christ and study it in the fear of God, that we might
pray with all our heart that He may give us the Teacher of righteous-
ness - according to His own idea of righteousness (Joel 2:23 margin).
That is what we want. And brethren, as certainly as we pray for Him to
do that, that is what He will do. And then when He sends to us, by His
Spirit, the teaching of the message of His righteousness, let us take it
exactly as He gives it.

Let us not discount it a particle, even if it takes away all that we

ever thought was the right idea in that connection. We have nothing to
do with that. What you and I want to do is to lay aside every thought
of this kind, every deduction we have made upon it, every discount
we have put upon it, every shape we have given to it--drop all these,
and let us come as Christ said, “as little children,” asking what is the
kingdom of God, for the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost.

These that will not receive the kingdom of God as little chil-
dren, Jesus Himself says, cannot enter into it. And if we come with
what we have already learned, and try to frame it upon that, it will not
fit upon that. If we come and try to mold everything that He is now
giving us upon our conception of what we have previously learned (or
thought we learned), we will spoil the whole thing. We will just shut
ourselves out from it all. Therefore, that text abides with us still: “If any
man thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to
know” (1 Corinthians 8:2). Let us come, as Christ said, “as little chil-
dren,” asking “what is the kingdom of God?”, for the kingdom of God
is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

These that will not receive the kingdom of God as little chil-
dren, Jesus Himself says, cannot enter into it. And if we come with
which we have already learned, and try to frame it upon that, it will not
fit upon that. If we come and try to mold everything else that He will
give us now, upon our conception of what we have, we will spoil the
whole thing and just shut ourselves out from it all. These that will not
29
receive the kingdom of God as little children, Jesus Himself says, can-
not enter into it. Therefore that text abides with us still: “Those who
think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.”
That belongs to us.

Having the Mind of Christ

Now let’s take that thought a little further. The latter rain, this
message, is the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ.
That is the loud cry, but that message is the teaching of righteousness
according to righteousness, and that means God’s idea of righteous-
ness and not our own. Is my idea of God’s righteousness--my idea at
its broadest stretch--is that God’s idea of righteousness? [Congrega-
tion: “No.”] Then when I get the broadest idea I possibly can of God’s
righteousness, and am satisfied with that idea and say that it will save
me, then whose idea of righteousness is it that is to save me? [Congre-
gation: “Your own.”]

Of course it is. Because when I measure up His ideas and mine

and make Him like myself, when I confine Him within my limited
comprehension, I am my own savior. That idea of things makes Him
no greater than I am. Do you see that? [Congregation: “Yes, sir.”] Yes,
indeed. We are to receive this message, this latter rain, this message of
the righteousness of God according to His own ideas and in His own
way. When He says it and when He gives it, we are to take it up and
thank Him for it and not to question how it comes or anything like
that. We are to receive it as He speaks it and as He gives it, and let Him
do just as He pleases in carrying it forward in the world. Because, what
is righteousness? Right doing.

Whose righteousness is it that we are to have? [Congregation:

“God’s.”] Then it is God’s right doing that we are to have. It is not our
own right doing. It is His idea of His right doing and not our idea of
right doing. It is not our idea of His right doing. It is His own idea of
His own right doing. It is, in fact, His own right doing when He does
things. Therefore, that calls upon you and me to yield up everything
of ourselves to Him and let Him do the doing as He pleases with this

30
which is His own. He is to do the doing. We are to be instruments.
“Yield yourselves as instruments of righteousness.” Your members as
instruments of righteousness. Yield them to whom? To God. He uses
the instruments (Romans 6:13).

Will you let Him? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] Will you stick to
that for a week? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] Now another thought that
leads us thus. We know it is God’s idea only. That is the true idea of
this righteousness of God. Then can I grasp His idea of righteousness
with my own mind? [Congregation: “No sir.”] Can I have a mind that
will grasp it, and that can grasp it? Yes. Is there any mind in the uni-
verse that can grasp God’s idea of righteousness? Yes. Whose? Christ’s.
Then does not that shut you and me up to that fact, that without the
mind of Jesus Christ we do not and cannot have the righteousness of
God? I don’t care how much of a theory a man may have of the righ-
teousness of God. I don’t care how much he may say he believes in the
righteousness of God. I don’t care how much he may say he believes in
justification by faith. If he does not have the mind of Christ itself, he
does not understand God’s idea of justification by faith, and he cannot
tell it.

No man can grasp the righteousness of God without the mind

of Jesus Christ, which alone of all minds in the universe can grasp it,
or comprehend it, or know it. Now is that so? [Congregation: “Yes
sir.”] But I can have my mind turned into the mind of Christ? Can’t I?
Re-made, re-vamped, and transformed into the mind of Christ? [Con-
gregation: “No sir. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus.”] All right, will you let it? Will you do that? Is that what you
have made up your mind to do? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] That is the
thing to start with then, is it not? The only possible way in which any-
body in this world can know the righteousness of God, can receive the
righteousness of God, can receive the teaching of this righteousness
according to righteousness . . . the only way, the only possible way, that
any man in this world can receive it or know it is by having the mind
of Christ itself.

Here is an expression we will give, correct enough in itself,

that the commandments of God are the reflection, the transcript, and
the expression of God’ righteousness. The Ten Commandments are
the manifestation in writing, in letters, of the will of God. Rom. 2:17,
18 says: “Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the law and make
31
your boast of God and know His will and approve the things that are
more excellent, being instructed out of the law.” Then the law being
the expression of God’s will, expresses what God’s will is that shall be
done in the way of right doing.

Will the Ten Commandments accept any “doing” from any-

body that comes short of God’s own idea of what is right doing? No.
Then the Ten Commandments simply require such a measure of right
doing as God’s own mind measures and as His will expresses. Well
then, when the Ten Commandments require just that, and will accept
nothing short of that. Now how in the world are the requirements of
the Ten Commandments to be met in any man’s life in this world,
unless he has the mind of God? It cannot be done.

Where do we get that mind? [Congregation: “In Christ.”] Then

is it possible for any man, by any possible means, to render to the Ten
Commandments what they require and the only thing they will accept,
without having the mind of Jesus Christ itself? [Congregation: “No
sir.”] Well, can I have the mind of Christ without the rest of Him? No,
I cannot. Therefore as I cannot have the mind of Christ without the
rest of Him, it follows that I must have the personal presence of Christ
Himself. Who is it that brings to you and me the personal presence
of Jesus Christ? The Spirit of God. Turn to two texts, one in John and
one in Ephesians. John 14:18 says, “I will not leave you comfortless; I
will come to you.” He does not leave us comfortless, that is without a
Comforter. So He says, I will come to you, but when He comes to us
thus, we are not without a Comforter. Then He does come to us by the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.

Now turn to Ephesians 3:16, 17. Let us read that carefully to-
gether. This is the prayer: “That He would grant you, according to the
riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts.” [Someone quoted
the words of the text, “by faith.”] Of course, faith belongs there. But
there is a double attachment to the middle statement: First, strength-
ened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts, but He dwells in the heart by faith.

We receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; but what

brings it? The Spirit of God, and when we have that, Christ dwells in
the heart. Then it is the Holy Spirit that brings the personal presence
32
of Jesus Christ, and in bringing His personal presence to us, He brings
Himself. Then it is the mind of Christ, by which we may comprehend,
investigate, and revel in, the deep things of God which He reaches
down and brings forth to our understanding and sets them before us
in their plainness. That is what we must have, in order to have the
presence of Christ, in order to have the righteousness of Christ, in
order that we may have the latter rain, in order that we may give the
loud cry.

33
 CHAPTER THREE
Being Emptied of Self

Last night we came to this: that in order to have the righteous-

ness of God—which is the latter rain, which is the preparation for the
loud cry—we must have the mind of Christ only; it cannot come in any
other way. This is precisely the advice that is given to us in the Scrip-
tures: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philip-
pians 2:5,6). What does the text show us that the mind of Christ does?
What did it do in Him? It “emptied himself.” When that mind is in us,
what will it do there? The same thing. It will empty us of self. Then
the first thought the text gives us is that the mind of Christ empties
the man who accepts it of himself. When that mind that was in Christ
“emptied himself ”, then what came? God filled Him. When that mind
that was in Him is also in us, and when that mind does in us what it
did in Him—empties us of self—what then will fill the place? God in
Christ will fill us. Then God in Christ dwells in us, and that takes self
out of the way.

Now what mind is in us to start with? The mind of self. What

does that mind do? It exalts self. What kind of mind is it we have to
start with? The natural mind. A man has a natural mind, and he must
have another mind. He must have the mind that was in Christ, but
that mind that is in Christ only empties of self the one in whom it
dwells. Therefore, as we have a mind to start with and must have an-
other mind, does it not follow inevitably that the mind which we have
to start with, is a mind only of self? God made man to start with, at the
real start in Eden. Did God put in that man the mind of self? [Congre-
gation: “No sir.”]

Whose mind was it in that man? The mind of God. Brother

Haskell has read to us in his lessons of the wonderful wisdom that was
in Adam, and that wisdom was of God that was reflected in the life
of Adam--his mind, his thoughts, his whole make-up reflecting the
Maker. When God said, “Let us make man in our image,” it meant a
great deal more than the shape; it meant that if you and I could have
34
seen Adam and Eve as they came from the hand of God, we would have
seen the image of God reflected and would have been caused to think
of Somebody back of them, far back of them and far superior to them.
Who is that? God.

But they did not stay as God made them. Satan came into the
garden. God had said to them certain words, His words, the expression
of His mind, His thought concerning them. If they had received and
had retained those words and the thoughts of God in those words,
whose mind would they have retained? God’s. When this other one,
Satan, came and told them other words, expressing his thoughts and
the product of his mind and they accepted that and yielded to that,
then whose thoughts did they receive and whose mind did they re-
ceive? [Congregation: “Satan’s”.] We need not go back into the depths
of Satan’s experience; we all know what it was that caused his fall. What
was that? [Congregation: “Pride.”] But self was the root of the pride;
self is the root of everything; pride is the fruit of self only. Satan was
looking to himself before he got proud of himself.

If he had looked into the face of Him who sits upon the throne,
he never would have become proud. He would have reflected the im-
age of Him who sits upon the throne, as that image is manifested in
Jesus Christ. But when he turned His look from the face of Him who
sits upon the throne and turned it upon himself, then it was that he
became proud of himself. Then it was that he considered how beautiful
he himself was, and his heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and
he began to give himself credit for what he was. What he was came
from God. but Lucifer gave himself credit for all that he was and for
what he was. Did he not in that, count himself as self-existent and in
fact put himself in the place of God? But it all came from self, and that
is the thought of it all. He said, “I will be like God. I will be like the
Most High.” He would be in the place of Christ, and anyone who puts
himself in the place of Christ puts himself in the place of God, because
God is in Christ.

Then that being so, that being Satan’s mind, when he came to
our first parents and they received of that mind, what mind was that?
The mind of self, because it is the mind of Satan who is self, and he set
that same ambition before them that he had set before himself. This
was the same ambition that made him what he was. “Ye shall not surely
die, for God knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall
35
be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise.”

To be desired to do what? To make one wise. Wise as what

(Who)? Like God. “Ye shall be like God,” knowing more than you
know now. Knowing such and such things. O yes, then that tree is a
tree to be desired to bring to me that knowledge, to give me that wis-
dom, and this tree is the channel through which I can accomplish that
object of being like God. That is it. Then what is the mind that is in us?
[Congregation: “Self.”] The natural mind is the mind of Satan. That is
self always.

The Ability to Choose God is a Gift from God

Now the Lord did not leave it there alone. The Lord did not
stop right there. If He had stopped there, there never could have been
in any man’s mind in this world any impulse other than that of Satan
himself, because the whole natural mind is of self and Satan only. But
God said, “I will break that up.” He said, “I will put enmity between
you (Satan) and the woman and between your seed and her seed.” God
put the enmity there, the hatred against Satan’s power and the hatred
against even the things that are in that mind. God has planted that ha-
tred there, and that is the source of every impulse to good, or to right,
or anything of that kind that ever comes into any man’s mind in this
world. But when God put that hatred of evil there, it also begets the de-
sire for something better than this evil which we hate. But what is that
better thing? What is the object of that desire? [Congregation: “Jesus
Christ.”]

Because of Jesus Christ and His presence, God’s mind comes

back to the place whence it has been taken away. God’s image comes
back to the place from whence it has been banished by this deception
of Satan. Christ is the image of God, the express image of His person,
and when we receive Jesus Christ in His fullness, the image of God is
returned to the place where it belongs. Therefore His putting of that
enmity sets the will—the choice—free, so that man can choose this

36
other mind. This is that Light that lights every man that cometh into
the world. If a man will follow that light, he will find Jesus Christ, as
Abraham did, as Cornelius did, as everyone does who will follow that
ray of light. So He is the Desire of all nations (Haggai 2:7). Christ is
that.

The man who finds that hatred of evil, that desire for some-
thing better, that will to do good, is that the doing of good? [Con-
gregation: “No.”] Can He do the good that He is drawn to do, by that
impulse? [Congregation: “No.”] Let us read in Romans and see what is
done. Rom. 3:10 says, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not
one.” And the 12th verse says: “They are all gone out of the way; they
are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not
one.” Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] Then how can we talk about
a heathen doing good? Does he do good? “There is none that does
good, no, not one.” [A voice: “If a man has Christ, he can do good.”]
But if he has Christ, he is not a heathen. What we are talking about is
the heathen. No, even this need not be. We need not go to the heathen
to inquire.

All we need is to go to the Jews. Here is one that was a Jew, like
you and I. Romans 7:14 says, “For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin.” The carnal mind is the natural mind.
Whose mind is the natural mind? Satan’s – that is the mind of self; that
is the mind of Satan. Well, let us read further. “For that which I do, I
allow not.” What is the reason I do not allow what I do? What is the
matter with it? Why can’t I allow it? Because I know it is wrong. It is
not good. If it were good, wouldn’t I allow it? “That which I do, I allow
not.” What is actually done then? The good? No, the not good. The
bad. The wrong. “For what I want to do, I do not do.” What would he
do? [Congregation: “Good.”] For what I want to do, that is what I do
not do.” What would he do? [Congregation: “Good.”] What did he do?
[Congregation: “Wrong.”] Then on both these points what was done?
The evil. “But what I hate, that do I.” What did he hate? Sin. He hated
the evil, the wrong and the bad. But what did he do? The evil. He did
the evil; he did the wrong; he did the bad.

Then how much good does the natural man do? None. Al-
though he hates the bad, how much good does he do? None. He would
do the good, but how much of the good that he wants to do, does he
actually do? None. Now is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] It is so, for
37
the Bible says so. Then what in the world is the use of anybody’s talking
about the heathen doing good, or even a Jew doing good, or any man
doing good, who has only the natural mind and is only the natural
man? This is not saying anything as to what he knows; that is not say-
ing whether he has impulses to good or not; that is not the question.
He had these impulses all the time, didn’t he? He had the knowledge of
good, so much that he hated the bad things that he was doing.

Now think of that. There was the natural man: there was a man
like you and I and every other man born into this world. He had im-
pulses to good; he had the knowledge of good and he hated the evil;
but what did he do? Not what did he think? Not what did he know?
But what did he do? He did the evil. It is not a question of what he
knew. Did he do anything else than evil? No. He knew something else;
he knew better, didn’t he? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] Then let us not
pass off our right knowing for right doing. Let us not pass off our right
knowledge for right deeds. Knowledge of right is not doing right. So he
did not do any good. Who is that? It is you and I—the natural man. Is
that I? Yes. Without the mind of Christ itself is that I? Yes. Then though
I profess to believe in Christ, if the mind of Christ itself is not there, is
that I? Yes. Is it you? [Congregation: “Yes sir!”] All right, then, let us go
together.

The Power of the Gospel

“If then I do that which I do not want to do, I consent unto

the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it.” No. I said
I would not do it. I said that I hated it and declared that I would nev-
er do it again. But I did do it. Then when I hated it and resolved and
re-resolved and determined that I would never do it again and yet did
it, what in the world was the matter with me? I had the knowledge but
did not have the power. Now the gospel of Christ, which is “Christ in you,”
that is the power. It is the power of God to everyone that believes. Well,
then, the natural man is not free, is he? [Congregation: “No sir.”] He is
not in a condition where he can do the good that even he wants to do,
and his intellect is tainted and his mind is weakened.

38
 He cannot even live up to his own standard. But is what he
would do, as he sees it, is that as God would have him do it? [Congre-
gation: “No.”] Or as God would do it? [Congregation: “No.”] Whose
right-doing are we to have? [Congregation: “God’s.”] Yes, God’s righ-
teousness is what we are to have. And righteousness is right doing. So
it is God’s right doing that we must have. Then our understanding is
exceedingly low, even with the light which God has let shine into our
hearts. Then where is the good doing of any man in this world, who has
not the mind of Jesus Christ?

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good

thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which
is good I find not.” What is it that is present with us? The will to do
good. Then what did that putting of enmity there against Satan—what
was that the doing of? Is not it setting the man free to will? Yes. Was it
anything more than that? [Congregation: “No.”] Now think carefully
of this point. There are other things in it of course, but did that do any
more for the man to enable him to do right things, and glorify God?
Did it do any more for him than to set free his will, that he might
choose which master he would have? [Congregation: “No.”]

It put the hatred there, and gave him the knowledge of some-
thing better. It gives the hatred of evil and leads him out towards the
good, but does it enable him to do the good? [Congregation: “No.”]
Now just another thought there. He hates the evil and declares he nev-
er will do it, and yet against his will and against all his being for that
matter, it is done. But what is it, and who is it, that actually does it?
[Congregation: “’Sin that dwells in him.”] And who rules that? [Con-
gregation: “Satan.”] Who is the master of that man? [Congregation:
“Satan.”]

The Carnal Mind is Incurable

Now when the man is set free from that carnal mind, that
mind of self and Satan, who controls that man? Who then is his mas-
ter? [Congregation: “Christ.”] Yes. His Master is the One who sets him
free. It is Christ Jesus. Then when we are free from Satan’s mastery, we

39
become bound to another Master. Satan’s mastery is slavery and ruin;
Christ’s mastery is freedom and everlasting life, everlasting joy, and
everlasting prosperity. Now carry that thought a little further. When
we had the mind of Satan and he was ruling, we said we would not do
those evil things, but just those things were done. Who did it? [Con-
gregation: “Sin that dwells in us.”]

We said we will do so and so. We did not. Who kept us from it?
[Congregation: “Satan.”] But now in Christ, we are free from him: we
have the other mind. We say we will do that and we do. Who does it?
[Congregation: “Christ.”] While we are in the natural mind and we re-
fuse the good – who does it? [Congregation: “Satan.”] And when in the
mind of Christ we choose the good – who does that? [Congregation:
“Christ.”] Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] It is God that works in you
both to will and to do, of His good pleasure.

This thought will come more fully at another time, but we want
to get the thought before you tonight. “For the good that I want to do,
I don’t do, but the evil that I do not want to do, that is what I do. Now
if I do the things I don’t want to do, it is no more I that do it, but sin
that dwells in me. I find then a law (principle), that when I would do
good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the
inward man: But I see another law (principle) in my members, warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?”

What is the condition of the man who has only the natural
mind? [Congregation: “Wretched.”] Yes, and in captivity. And the more
intense the hatred of the evil the more wretched the condition, because
there is no deliverance from it in anything the man can do for himself.
Well then, who shall deliver? “I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord.” “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”

Now Romans 8:6, 7 says this: “For to be carnally minded is

death.” What is the condition of that man who has only the natural
mind? [Congregation: “Dead.”] “But to be spiritually minded is life and
peace. Because the carnal mind [the natural mind] is” at enmity with
God [Congregation: “No. It IS enmity against God.”] Yes, it is not at
enmity with God, but it itself is enmity. It “is enmity against God: for
40
it is not subject to the law of God,” until the man is converted? [Con-
gregation: “Neither indeed can be.”] Can’t be? Cannot God make that
mind subject to His law? [Congregation: “No.”]

Now, can’t the Lord make that mind that is in you and me—
the natural mind—can’t He make that subject to His law? [Congrega-
tion: “No.”] What is that mind? It is enmity against God. Cannot the
Lord make that which is enmity against Him—can’t He make it love
for Him? [Congregation: “No.”] There is the point: If it were at enmity,
then it might be reconciled, because the thing that would make it at
enmity would be the source of the trouble. Therefore, take away the
source of the trouble, and then the thing that is at enmity would be
reconciled. We are at enmity, but when He takes the enmity away, we
are reconciled to God. In this matter of the carnal mind though, there
is nothing between; it is the thing itself. That is the root.

Then it cannot be subject to the law of God. The only thing

that can be done with it is to destroy it, uproot it, banish it, and an-
nihilate it. Whose mind is it? [Congregation: “Satan’s.”] It is the mind
of self, and that is of Satan. Well then, what can a man do in the way
of righteousness? What can be done in him, even, in the way of righ-
teousness, until that other mind is there? [Congregation: “Nothing.”]
Well, that is the mind that is in all mankind. Now let us see how this
carnal mind, this natural man, works in the matter of righteousness in
regards to the matter of justification.

In the first chapter of Romans, it tells us this, verses 20-22:

“For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His
eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because
that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither
were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their fool-
ish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools.” Who was the first inhabitant of this world that professed to fol-
low wisdom at the suggestion of self, at the suggestion of Satan? Eve.
She was the first one that reached out after wisdom in this way. What
did she get? [Congregation: “Foolishness.”] She became a fool. And we
are all there. Who leads the natural mind? Satan. Who works it? Satan.
Then when those that he is speaking of here, had gone away from God
became fools; “and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into
an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed
41
beasts, and creeping things”--that is heathendom.

In the fifteenth chapter of Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Ro-

man Empire, paragraph 17; he says this of the heathen in their inquiry
after the immortality of the soul: “In the sublime inquiry, their reason
had been often guided by their imagination, and their imagination
had been prompted by their vanity.” Mark it. Reason of what kind of a
mind? [Congregation: “The carnal mind.”] Guided by the imagination
of what kind of a mind? [Congregation: “The carnal mind.”] And the
imagination prompted by the vanity of what kind of a mind? [Congre-
gation: “The carnal mind.”]

Is not that exactly the mind of Satan? Vanity is the root of the
inquiry and self is the root of the vanity. This is the best comment upon
that verse of Scripture you will find in this world. I read on: “When
they viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental powers,
when they exercised the various faculties of memory, of fancy, and of
judgment, in the most profound speculations, or the most important
labors, and when they reflected on the desire of fame, which trans-
ported them into future ages, far beyond the bonds of death and of the
grave; they were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of
the field or to suppose that a being, for whose dignity they entertained
the most sincere admiration, could be limited to a spot of earth and to
a few years of duration.”

What is that but the description of Satan’s career when he

started? His reason prompted by his imagination; his imagination
guided by his vanity, and viewing with complacency the extent of his
own mental powers; the desire for fame beyond that of God, and un-
willingness to allow that a person, for whose dignity he entertained the
most sincere admiration, could be properly confined to a subordinate
place in the universe of God. Is not this an exact description of man-
kind in a heathen condition, written by a philosopher, looking only at
the question from man’s side of it? Could there be a clearer description
of the working of Satan in his original career?

“With this favorable prepossession they summoned to their

aid the science, or rather the language, of metaphysics. They soon dis-
covered that as none of the properties of matter will apply to the oper-
ations of the mind, the human soul must consequently be a substance
distinct from the body, pure, simple and spiritual, incapable of dissolu-
42
tion, and susceptible of a much higher degree of virtue and happiness
after the release from its corporeal prison. From these specious and
noble principles, the philosophers who trod in the footsteps of Plato
deduced a very unjustifiable conclusion, since they asserted, not only
the future immortality, but the past eternity of the human soul, which
they were too apt to consider as a portion of the infinite and self-exist-
ing spirit, which pervades and sustains the universe.”

True and False Views of Justification by Faith

What is that but the mind of Satan? Self-existing, like God.

Equal with God. Isn’t that then but the action in man, of that very
mind which was in Lucifer in heaven, that mind which aspired to be
equal with God? That mind that would exalt self to equality with God?
That is the natural mind. That is the mind that is natural in every man
in the world. That is the mind of Satan. And that is the working of this
natural mind in open, bold heathenism. Then does not every such one
need another mind—even the mind of Jesus Christ—the mind that
thought it not a thing to be seized upon to be equal with God, but
emptied Himself?

Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him. Well, there we have

seen the heathen idea openly, broadly, and raw, just as it is. Now let
us see this same thing as it stands before the world, professing to be
justified by faith, as it is manifested in the papacy. For the papacy is
the very incarnation of Satan and of this mind of self. For he “opposes
and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.”
He does all this, not coming in as heathenism, but under the name and
form of Christianity, and all this as a counterfeit of the truth.

I have here a book entitled Catholic Belief. It bears the im-

primatur of John Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York and
comes into this country with the approval of the hierarchy in this
country. I shall read some from it that you may have the two things—
the truth of justification by faith and the falsity of it—side by side. I will
read what this says, and then what God says in the little book, Steps to
Christ. It is in the Testimonies also, and all through the Bible it is of

43
course the same.

I want you to see what the Roman Catholic idea of justifica-

tion by faith is, because I have had to meet it among professed Sev-
enth-day Adventists in the past four years. These very things, these
very expressions that are in this Catholic book, as to what justification
by faith is and how to obtain it, are just such expressions as professed
Seventh-day Adventists have expressed to me as to what justification
by faith is.

I want to know how you and I are to carry a message to this

world, warning them against the worship of the beast, when we hold in
our very profession the doctrines of the beast? Can it be done? [Con-
gregation: “No.”] So I call your attention to this tonight so you may see
just what it is and so that, if possible, knowing what it is to start with,
knowing that it is papal, knowing that it is the beast, you will let it go.
So even if you are not ready to believe in justification by faith, indeed,
even if you cannot see that truth as some are unable to, if you see that
it is the papal error then let it go.

Now, if we find out that it is papal, I hope those who have held
to that, or have expressed it at any rate (whatever they have held), will
be willing to let it go anyway. On page 74 of Catholic Belief, it reads as
follows: “In the case of grown-up persons, some dispositions are re-
quired on the part of the sinner in order to be fit to obtain this habitual
and abiding grace of justification.” He has got to prepare himself for it.
He has got to do something to make himself fit to receive it.

As I read each statement from this book, I shall then read the
opposite of it. So now, on page 31 of Steps to Christ, I read as follows:
“If you see your sinfulness, do not wait to make yourself better. How
many there are who think they are not good enough to come to Christ.
Do you expect to become better through your own efforts? … There
is help for us only in God. We must not wait for stronger persuasions,
for better opportunities, or for holier tempers. We can do nothing of
ourselves. We must come to Christ just as we are” (Romans 4:5 also).
This is justification by faith. That other thing is justification by works.
This is of Christ; that is of the devil. One is Christ’s doctrine of justifi-
cation by faith; the other is the devil’s doctrine of justification by faith.
And it is time that Seventh-day Adventists understood the difference.
[Congregation: “Amen!”]
44
 Again, reading from the Catholic work: “A man can dispose
himself only by the help of divine grace, and the dispositions which he
shows do not by any means effect or merit justification: they only serve
to prepare him for it.” In other words, “No, I don’t believe in justifica-
tion by works, but we have got to do something in order to be prepared
for it. We have got to show our good intentions anyway. We have got
to make some good resolutions before we start anyway. We have got to
do something to prepare us for it.” What does God say? On page 35 of
Steps to Christ I read: “He is wooing by his tender love the hearts of his
erring children. No earthly parent could be as patient with the faults
and mistakes of his children, as is God with those he seeks to save.” He
does what? “Seeks to save.” This is God’s way. The false view says, “Oh
no, He waits until men prepare themselves to be saved.” That is Satan’s
way.

“No one could plead more tenderly with the transgressor. No

human lips ever poured out more tender entreaties to the wanderer
than He does. All His promises, His warnings, are but the breathing
of unutterable love. When Satan comes to tell you that you are a great
sinner, look up to your Redeemer and talk of His merits. That which
will help you is to look to His light. Acknowledge your sin, but tell the
enemy that ‘Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,’ and that
you may be saved by His matchless love (1 Timothy 1:15).” (John 3:16
also).

This is true justification by faith. The other is justification by

works. This is Jesus Christ. The other is Satan. Then in this Catholic
work it goes on to tell a lot of things that you must do in order to have
these dispositions: “An act of faith …an act of fear of God, an act of
hope …an act of repentance. …a resolution to approach the Sacrament
of Penance.” These are things that will prepare you to be justified to be
saved. On page 76 of this same work, I read: “We stand in continual
need of actual graces to perform good acts, both before and after being
justified.”

45
 Is God Really Waiting for us to “Move” Him?

The false gospel says that, “good acts must be performed before
we are justified, in order to fit us for it. “The good acts, however, done
by the help of grace before justification are not, strictly speaking, mer-
itorious, but serve to smooth the way to justification, to move God.”
They “serve to move God.” That is just the hard, iron spirit the devil
asserts was in the Lord when He started in heaven. He said that God
was a tyrant and that God does not want His people or His creatures
to be free. The devil said that God sits there and wants everything to
go just so, without any reason, judgment, freedom, or anything of the
kind. He has to be “moved” by His creatures.

That is the doctrine that Satan has put into the idea of sacri-
fice from that time until now. God appointed sacrifices to show and to
convey to man, what God is willing to do for man, that God is making
sacrifice for him. But Satan whirled it around and said that man has got
to do this in order to get God into good humor, that somehow the Lord
is angry with him and wants to punish him. The idea is that now we
have got to sacrifice to pay Him off so He will not hurt us, and we have
to “move” Him to justify us.

Let us read what the Lord says on that subject, in Steps to

Christ, page 54. Speaking of the parable of the prodigal son and how
that, when the wanderer was yet a great way off, the father had com-
passion on him and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him, it says:
“But even this parable, tender and touching as it is, comes short of
expressing the infinite compassion of the heavenly Father. The Lord
declares by His prophet, ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love;
therefore, with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.’

While the sinner is yet far from the Father’s house, wasting his
substance in a strange country, the Father’s heart is yearning over him
and every longing awakened in the soul to return to God is but the
tender pleading of His Spirit, wooing, entreating, drawing the wander-
er to His Father’s heart of love.” “With the rich promises of the Bible
before you, can you give place to doubt? Can you believe that when the
poor sinner longs to return, longs to forsake his sins, the Lord sternly
withholds him from coming to His feet in repentance? Away with such

46
thoughts! Nothing can hurt your soul more that to entertain such a
conception of our heavenly Father” (Steps to Christ, pg. 54).

Who wants to hurt our souls? [Congregation: “Satan.”] Who

wants most to hurt the soul? Satan. What could more hurt the soul
than that doctrine there in that book that we must put ourselves into
dispositions, into frames of mind, and make good resolutions and all
these things in order to “move” God to take pity on us and save us.
What could more hurt the soul than to think that God sternly holds
off the sinner until the poor lost soul does something to move Him?
What more hurtful thing could a person believe? The Lord’s answer is:
“There is nothing that can hurt your soul more than such a concep-
tion.” Then, where alone can that doctrine come from? [Congregation:
“Satan.”] Yet that is passed off under the title and under the idea of jus-
tification by faith! There is no faith in it. “Away with it,” saith the Lord.
And let all the people say, “Amen.”

Shall we be Catholic or Bible Believing Protestants?

Again, I read from Catholic Belief: “But if with the assistance

of actual grace, good works are done by a person who is in a state of
justifying grace, then they are acceptable to God and merit an increase
of grace on earth and an increase of glory in heaven.” What does the
Lord say? I will read from page 57, Steps to Christ –and this is in the
chapter entitled “The Test of Discipleship.” It is talking to those who
are disciples; it is talking to the same persons to whom that other book
talks. What does it say? “While we cannot do anything to change our
hearts or to bring ourselves into harmony with God, while we must not
trust at all to ourselves or our good works, our lives will reveal whether
the grace of God is dwelling within us.”

You see then, God’s idea is that when He is there, He will show
Himself through us. The other, Satan’s idea, is that after we have got
the Lord converted, then we do some good work that is “meritori-
ous,” then we will be safe in this world and we will have “an increase
of grace” on this earth, “and an increase of glory in heaven.” That is
the very foundation of the merits of the “saints,” from which the pope

47
draws indulgences to give to those who have not enough merit of their
own.

Now that which I have just read from this Catholic work is in
a chapter on justification, preaching the straight doctrine on justifica-
tion. Here (page 365) he reviews the doctrine of justification by faith,
in condemnation of Protestants who believe it. Let us see brethren,
whether we shall be Protestants or Catholics. Let us see whether we
shall believe in Jesus Christ or Satan. That is what we need to under-
stand now, and now we understand it. We must understand what is
clearly before us before we start in to give the third angel’s message. I
read: “As in revolutions the leaders try to gain the people over by the
bait of promised independence, so at the time of the so-called refor-
mation--which was a revolution against church authority and order
in religion--it seems that it was the aim of the reformers to decoy the
people under the pretext of making them independent of the priests,
in whose hands our Saviour has placed the administering of the seven
Sacraments of pardon and of grace.”

The Catholics go on to speak of the Protestants in this way:

“They (the Protestants) began therefore, by discarding five of these
Sacraments, including the Sacrament of Order, in which Priests are
ordained, and the Sacrament of Penance, in which the forgiveness of
sins is granted to the penitent. . . . Then they reduced, as it appears,
to a mere matter of form, the two Sacraments they professed to re-
tain, namely, Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. To make up for
this rejection (of the Catholic sacraments) and enable each individual
to prescribe for himself, and procure by himself the pardon of sins
and divine grace, independently of the priests and of the sacraments,
they invented an exclusive means, never known in the Church of God
(Catholic church).” Elder Jones: Is this true doctrine? Is it true that
a man can approach God by himself, independently of the priests?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] What says the Lord? Steps to Christ, p. 117: “The
relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as if there
was not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.”

Thank the Lord. Now I read on in the Catholic book: “Inde-

pendently of priests and of the sacraments, they (the Prostestants) in-
vented an exclusive means, never known to the Church of God, and
still rejected by all the Eastern Churches and by the Roman Catholics
throughout the world. By this, the followers of Luther ventured to de-
48
clare that each individual can secure pardon and justification for him-
self, independently of priests and sacraments. They have framed a new
Dogma, not to be found in any of the Creeds, or in the Canons of any
General Council; I mean, the new dogma of Justification by Faith alone,
or by Faith only.”

That is the “new dogma” that is condemned by the papacy; one

that is not in any of her creeds. On page 366 I read again: “By adding
the word ‘alone’, Protestants profess to exclude all exterior, ceremoni-
al, pious, or charitable works, works of obedience or of penance, and
good moral acts whatever, as a means of apprehending justification, or
as conditions to obtain it.”

“Oh, yes, you have got to do something to pave the way; you
have got to do something to get out of that place where you are,” so
that you can be justified. You must lift yourself up part of the way, and
then the Lord will be moved and will receive you and justify you. That
is Satan’s doctrine. Shall we be Protestants or Catholics? That is the
question. [Congregation: “Protestants.”]

Shall we proclaim the third angel’s message against the wor-

ship of the beast and his image, or shall we be a part of the beast and his
image ourselves? That is the question. For the image is the image of the
beast in this point as well as in all else, even though it may profess to be
Protestant. It is apostate Protestant. On page 367 of the Catholic book
I read the following: “To do these acts with the view of being justified
is, they (the Protestants) say, like giving a penny to the queen to obtain
from her a royal gift.”

What says the Lord? Steps to Christ, page 49: “This is the les-
son which Jesus taught while He was on earth, that the gift which
God promises us, we must believe we do receive, and it is ours” (Mark
11:24). Then which is Christianity? [Congregation: “The last.”] But the
Catholic Church says that this is Protestantism. It is true. Thank the
Lord! But we continue reading from this Catholic work as it speaks of
Protestantism: “Come as you are, they (the Protestants) add; you can-
not be too bad for Jesus.”

Thank the Lord that this is not Catholic doctrine. Thank the
Lord it is no part of the beast or his worship nor the image and his
worship. Let us put them together. What says the Lord? Steps to Christ,

49
page 31: “We can do nothing of ourselves. We must come just as we
are.” Again, on page 52, “Jesus loves to have us come just as we are, sin-
ful.” What is “sinful?” [Congregation: “Full of sin.”] Does Jesus love to
have us come to Him just as we are, full of sin? [Congregation: “Yes.”]
Does He? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] Let us be Protestants. Let us have
the third angel’s message, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

How True Faith Goes to Work

“Jesus loves to have us come just as we are, sinful, helpless,

dependent. We may come with all [how much? “All.”] our weakness,
our folly, our sinfulness, and fall at His feet in penitence. It is His glory
to encircle us in the arms of His love and to bind up our wounds, to
cleanse us from all impurity. … None are so sinful that they cannot
find strength, purity, and righteousness in Jesus, who died for them”
(Steps to Christ, page 52). That is the gift of God. That is His gift—a free
gift without money, without price, and I take it gladly and everlast-
ingly thank Him for it. This is the Lord’s idea of justification by faith.
The other is Satan’s idea. Let us read from the Catholic book again:
“Through faith alone in His promise, they [Protestants] assert, you can
and should accept Christ’s merits, seize Christ’s redemption and His
justice; appropriate Christ to yourself, believe that Jesus is with you, is
yours, that He pardons your sins, and all this without any preparation
and without any doing on your part.”

Good! Thank the Lord, that is Protestantism! And Catholics

know that it is Protestantism. Do you know it? On page 51, Steps to
Christ, let us see what the Lord says: “… it is the will of God to cleanse
us from sin, to make us His children, and to enable us to live a holy life.
So we may ask for these blessings, and believe that we receive them,
and thank God that we have received them. It is our privilege to go to
Jesus and be cleansed and to stand before the law without shame or re-
morse”. [Congregation: “Amen!”] Without any need of doing penance?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] Thank the Lord.

Now the Catholic book again: “In fact, that however deficient
you may be in all other dispositions which Catholics require, and how-

50
ever loaded with sins, if you only trust in Jesus that He will forgive
your sins and save you, you are by that trust alone forgiven, personally
redeemed, personally justified, and placed in a state of salvation.” Now
let us read on page 35, “Steps to Christ”, again: “When Satan comes
to tell you that you are a great sinner, look up to your Redeemer, and
talk of His merits. That which will help you is to look to His light.”
Acknowledge your sins, but tell the enemy that ‘Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners’, and that you may be saved by His matchless
love. Jesus asked Simon a question in regard to two debtors. One owed
his lord a small sum, and the other owed him a very large sum, but he
forgave them both, and Christ asked Simon which debtor would love
his lord the most. Simon answered, ‘He to whom he forgave most.’ We
have been great sinners, but Christ died that we might be forgiven.
The merits of His sacrifice are sufficient to present to the father in our
behalf.”

Are they, in fact? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] Good! There is a

great deal more in this Catholic work that I will not take time to read
now. It goes on to define what faith is. Now think carefully, because
I have met people all the way along who think that this very thing is
faith which this Catholic book calls faith. I read page 368: “The word
‘faith’ in the Scripture sometimes means confidence in God’s omnip-
otence and goodness, that He can and is willing to cure or benefit us
by miraculous interposition. Mostly it refers to revealed truths, and
signifies belief in them as such.”

No one has a right to give to the word faith a new meaning,

and take it, for instance, to signify reliance on Jesus for being person-
ally saved through this very reliance alone. The only way that should
happen is if Jesus Christ or the Apostles had, in some instance clearly
attributed such a meaning to the word faith and taught the doctrine
of trust in Christ for personal salvation as the only requisite for justi-
fication. No one should attach a particular meaning to the word faith,
without having a good warrant in Scripture or in divine tradition.

“Now in many passages of Holy Scripture in which saving

faith is plainly spoken of, faith is not meant to be a trust in Christ for
personal salvation, but evidently a firm belief that Jesus is the Messiah,
the Christ, the Son of God, that what is related of Him in the Gospel is
true, and that what He taught is true.” On page 370, it defines faith, and
I will read that before reading the opposite. “These texts, all of which
51
refer to saving faith, prove beyond a doubt that it is not trust in Christ
for personal salvation but the faith of the creed (the Catholic Creed), the
faith in revealed truths.” Now what is faith according to that? “The faith
of the creed.” They simply draw up a statement of stuff that they call the
doctrine of God and then you are to believe that and do your best, and
that is to pass for justification by faith.

Now this has nearly happened in our own history at Minneap-

olis. Someone believed something about justification by faith and that
was nearly voted on as a creed. Were we not told at that time that the
angel of God said, “Do not take that step; you do not know what is in
that”? “I can’t take time to tell you what is in that, but the angel has said,
‘Do not do it.’ “ The papacy was in it. That was what the Lord was trying
to tell us and get us to understand, that the papacy was in it. Brethren,
is it not time to cut loose of those thoughts, even if it takes the very life
out of us? It will take the very life out of us, it will crucify us with Jesus
Christ. It will cause such a death to sin as we never dreamed of in our
lives before. It will take all that papal mind out of us, all that iron spirit
out of us, and it will put there the divine, tender, loving mind of Jesus
Christ, that wants no creed, because it has Christ Himself.

Well, let me read that again and then the contradiction of it

here. It seems as though one book was written for the other. Brethren,
which of the books shall we follow? Ah, “Steps to Christ.” That is what it
is (Steps towards Christ), and then it is steps with Him; when we have
stepped to, then it is steps with Christ. Now, I will read that over again
and then read the opposite: “Now, in many passages of Holy Scripture
in which saving faith is plainly spoken of, by faith it is not meant a trust
in Christ for personal salvation, but evidently a firm belief that Jesus
is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, that what is related of Him
in the gospel is true, and that what He taught is true.” That is Catholic
“faith.” Now what is the Lord’s definition, His idea of faith? Page 63,
Steps to Christ: “When we speak of faith, there is a distinction that
should be borne in mind. There is a kind of belief that is wholly distinct
from faith. The existence and power of God, the truth of His word, are
facts that even Satan and his hosts cannot at heart deny.”

Did not the evil spirits tell Jesus that He was Christ? [Con-
gregation: “Yes.”] Then the devils, Satan and his hosts, do believe in
the existence and power of God, that His word is true, and that Jesus
is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. Satan and his hosts believe
52
all that. But that is not faith. How much power is there in their belief
to work good in their lives? None at all. They have no faith. But just
this is the Catholic faith, isn’t it? What kind of faith is that then? That
is satanic faith. That is all it is, satanic belief, as this puts it, but yet the
papacy passes it for true faith. And whoever passes that for faith, is a
papist even when he professes to be a Protestant or even a Seventh-day
Adventist Christian. But I read on from Steps to Christ: “The Bible says
that ‘the devils also believe and tremble,’ but this is not faith. Where
there is not only a belief in God’s word, but a submission of the will to
Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him,
THERE IS FAITH.”

That is the truth of justifying faith and that is righteousness by

faith. It is a faith that works, and thank the Lord for it! It is not a faith
that believes something from a distance or that keeps the truth of God
in the outer court and then seeks by his own efforts to make up the
lack. It is not that. No, it is faith that works. It itself is working; it has a
divine power in it to manifest God’s will in man before the world. That
is righteousness by faith—the righteousness which faith obtains, which it
receives, and which it holds—the righteousness of God.

I continue reading from Steps to Christ, page 63: “…faith that

works by love and purifies the soul. Through this faith the heart is re-
newed in the image of God.” I do not need to read anymore, as this is
enough to show the contrast. This is enough to show that the papal
doctrine of justification by faith is Satan’s doctrine. It is simply the nat-
ural mind depending upon itself, working through itself, exalting itself
and then covering it all up with a profession of belief in this, that, and
the other thing, but having no power of God. Then brethren, let it be
rooted up forever.

In paganism, Satan led the mind of man to put itself on an

equality with God, without any covering at all. Then Christ came into
the world, revealing the true gospel as never before. The gospel revealed
Christ in man and man justified by faith in Him, and faith alone. It re-
vealed a faith which has divine life in it, a faith which has divine power
in it, a faith which lives and works, a faith that brings all things to him
who has it, and restores the image of God in the soul. Then Satan took
that same carnal mind which in paganism had made itself equal with
God, and now he covered it with his own idea of faith and passed it off
as justification by faith. He also exalted the chief representative of it
53
above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that as God he sits
in the place of worship of God, showing himself that he is God.

Oh, that we may have the mind of Christ and not the carnal
mind! Oh that we may have the mind of Christ and not the mind of
Satan! Oh that we may have the Lord’s idea of justification by faith,
and not Satan’s idea of it! Oh that we may receive the Lord’s idea of
righteousness by faith and not Satan’s! Then shall we indeed receive the
latter rain, the teaching of righteousness according to righteousness.”
Brethren, let us believe the third angel’s message. Now I hope that the
way is clearly open before us to study, as it is the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
Then let us go at it in the fear of God, seeking for His Holy Spirit to
make it plan to us, so that that Teacher of Righteousness may teach us
righteousness according to righteousness (Joel 2:23, margin).

54
55
 CHAPTER FOUR
A Teacher of Righteousness, According to Righteousness

The last study we had here was an effort to get as plainly as

possible before this people, the difference between satanic belief and
the faith of Jesus Christ; the difference between justification by works
under the heading of justification by faith and that of justification by
faith as it really is. That was the effort and that was the aim. And you
will remember how it was done. And that brought us to the subject that
is ever before us now: that we must have the teaching of righteousness
according to righteousness. And this can be only according to God’s
idea of righteousness and not our own, and in order to have God’s idea
of righteousness instead of our own, we must have the mind that can
comprehend it, and that alone is the mind of Jesus Christ.

Whoever does not have the mind of Christ itself, whoever has
not yielded up himself and all that he has and is and then received
the mind of Christ instead does not know, and he cannot know what
righteousness by faith is. He cannot know what justification by faith
is. He may profess it, he may assent to it and he may claim it, but he
cannot know it, for no man can know it with the natural mind. Let us
turn now and read from the Bible where it says so.

1 Cor. 2:14 says, “But the natural man receives not the things
of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him.” That is just the
way the righteousness by faith has been treated by hundreds of people
who profess to believe it. With the natural mind it belongs that way.
And it will always be that way with the man who has not the mind
of Christ. But the man who has not that mind does not know it. He
thinks he is straight and he thinks he has the righteousness of God
which is by faith, and yet what he has is not good. He is constantly
trying to patch it up and complete it and yet he thinks that that is righ-
teousness by faith.

“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit

56
of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.” How can a man then know the
righteousness of God with the natural mind? Now, I appeal to you. I
do not care who you are, whether you have ever heard of Christ before
in your life. Just taking that verse as it reads, how can a man know the
righteousness of God for himself with the carnal mind--the mind of
Satan, for that is what the carnal mind is? Now, can that man do it?
[Congregation: “No.”] Can the mind of Satan know the righteousness
of God?

Again, the righteousness of God is expressed in the law of God

(the Ten Commandments) through letters and words. Now all agree
with that and there is not a Seventh-day Adventist that will not agree
with that. The difficulty is that so many people try to get the righteous-
ness of God out of the law by the law. Some others try to get it and
actually do get it without the law, by the faith of Jesus Christ, which
is “unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference.”
“For now …’ (and that means now!), “the righteousness of God with-
out the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all
and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference.” Rom. 3:21,
22. He who obtains it in that way has it, but I say and we all agree, that
every Seventh-day Adventist will confess, that the Ten Command-
ments express in letters and in words, the righteousness of God.

Now then, “The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is

not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be.” How then
can the carnal mind know the righteousness of God? How can the
carnal mind be subject to it? It cannot be, says the Lord. Then the
man who has only the carnal mind, who knows only the natural birth
and has not the mind of Jesus Christ, cannot know the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. And now, just now, when
the Lord wants to reveal to us the righteousness of God according to
righteousness, to give to us the teaching of righteousness according to
righteousness, now as never before in earth’s history, it is now that we
need and must have the mind of Jesus Christ alone.

57
 Having a Mind that Says “Yes” to God

Now, “the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, nei-
ther indeed can be.” Is the mind of Christ subject to the law of God?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] Was it ever anything else? [Congregation:
“No.”] The mind of Christ was subject to the word of God always. The
whole Bible, of course is simply the drawing out of the law of God as it
is in Christ. Well then, was not the mind of Christ always subject to the
law, and to the whole word of God just as it is? [Congregation: “Yes.”]
There was never any hitch upon that. Wherever the word of God was
read, how did the mind of Christ receive it? It instantly received it.

He would not say, “Now how can that be, I wonder?” Don’t
you suppose He said, “Well now I think that means this way.” Didn’t
He say, “Are you not a little too strong about reading that text?” “Can’t
you modify it just a little?” Did He ever get troubled over what the
Bible said about anything or what the Lord would say? No. Whenever
the word of God was spoken, the mind of Christ instantly responded.

Brethren, I know that you and any man in this world can have
just that kind of a mind. I know that you can have just such a mind,
that whenever the word of God speaks, the response is instantaneous,
and there is no question or doubt or sign of rejection. Now you can
see upon this very thing, that if you and I have such a mind as that,
then when the word of God is read, there is no rising up or objection
or dissent. Is that the mind of Christ? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Then it is easy enough to know whether we have the mind

of Christ or not. If your mind or my mind, if your disposition or my
disposition, is not in that surrendered condition (that position of sur-
render unto God), whose mind do we have? If whenever He speaks in
His word, and we have anything in our mind or heart that raises up
any objection or dissent towards His word, then whose mind have we?
[Congregation: “The carnal mind.”] That is the mind that started out
to object in the first place. The time has come to get rid of that thing.

But I say that a man can have just that kind of a mind that
whenever and whatever the word of God speaks, there is an instant
response. There is nothing in that mind that can rise up in objection

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against God’s word. That mind is not natural to a man, but a man can
have it and can know that he has it. That is the mind that we are to
have. That is the mind to which the Lord can reveal His righteousness
according to righteousness. It is the mind that receives from God, just
what God has to give in His own way, and not try to fix it up or modify
it, or discount it.

So then, the man who receives the truth of justification by

faith or righteousness by faith, according to his own idea or his own
view of it, simply cannot accomplish it; he simply has not got it and
that is all. It is just that same satanic idea of righteousness by faith as
the Roman Catholic system of justification by works, passing it off for
Justification by Faith. The time has now come, and in a great deal more
serious a sense than nine-tenths of us dream of, when we need to know
that we have the righteousness of God and Justification by Faith in
another sense than the Roman Catholics use it. That is settled.

Having the Presence of Jesus

I read a passage previously about the Laodicean message and

what it is designed to do: “It is designed to arouse the people of God, to
discover to them their backslidings, and to lead to zealous repentance,
that they may be favored with the presence of Jesus and be fitted for
the loud cry of the third angel.” Who will be fitted for the loud cry of
the third angel? Those who have the presence of Jesus Christ. Those
to whom the Laodicean message has brought by its working and its
intent the presence of Jesus Christ. This means the personal presence
too—not imaginary, a way off presence; it is not that at all.

Let us read the explanation of it here in Steps to Christ, page

73: “When Christ ascended to heaven, the sense of His presence was
still with His followers. It was a personal presence, full of love and
light. Jesus, the Savior, who had walked and talked and prayed with
them, who had spoken hope and comfort to their hearts, had while the
message of peace was still upon His lips, been taken up from them into
heaven, and the tones of His voice had come back to them, as the cloud
of angels received Him—’Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end

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of the world.’

He had ascended to heaven in the form of humanity. They

knew that He was before the throne of God, their friend and Savior
still; that His sympathies were unchanged; that He was still identified
with suffering humanity. He was presenting before God the merits of
His own precious blood, showing His wounded hands and feet, in re-
membrance of the price He had paid for His redeemed. They knew
that He had ascended to heaven to prepare places for them, and that
He would come again, and take them to Himself. As they met togeth-
er, after the ascension, they were eager to present their requests to the
Father, in the name of Jesus.” That was a fine prayer meeting, wasn’t
it? There were 120 people, each one eager to present his requests to the
Father in the name of Jesus.

“In solemn awe they bowed in prayer, repeating the assur-

ance, ‘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.’ They extended their hands of faith
higher and higher, with the mighty argument, ‘It is Christ that died,
yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also makes intercession for us.’ And Pentecost brought them the
presence of the Comforter, of whom Christ had said, He ‘shall be in
you.’ And he had further said, ‘It is expedient for you that I go away:
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I
depart I will send him unto you’ “ (Steps to Christ, page 74).

“Henceforth through the Spirit, Christ was to abide continu-

ally in the hearts of His children. Their union with him was closer than
when He was personally with them” (Ibid). That is what He wants us
to have now. He wants us to have now what they got at Pentecost—the
personal presence of Jesus Christ, and if we have that, He will be closer
to us than if He was here in the body. He wants to come closer to you
and me than He would be if He should come to the meeting here every
night and sit down with us. That is what He wants now.

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 Jesus’ Presence brings the Works of Jesus

“The light, and love, and power of the indwelling Christ shone
out through them, so that men beholding ‘marveled; and they took
knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus’ “ (Ibid). As they
carried the gospel message in the love of Christ, they also kept con-
stantly before them the immense worth of the souls for whom they
were working. If we carried the message like that, even worldly
non-believers would be convicted to say, “They are like Jesus.” The
time has come when He wants that message borne that way, and He is
going to have it borne that way.

If those who profess His name will not let Him come in in
His fullness now so they can bear the message that way, He will find a
people that will. That is where we are now. We cannot dally any lon-
ger. “All that Christ was to the first disciples, He desires to be to His
children today, for in that last prayer, with the little band of disciples
gathered about Him, He said, ‘Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me through their word’ “ (Steps to
Christ, page 75).

Jesus prayed for us, and He asked that we might be one with
Him, even as He is one with the Father. What a union is this! The Sav-
ior had said of Himself, “The Son can do nothing of Himself,” (John
5:19), and “The Father that dwells in me, He does the works” (John
14:10). Then if Christ is dwelling in our hearts, He will work in us.
Some people become so anxious and so dreadfully afraid that the gos-
pel is somehow contrary to works – as if it is going to destroy all the
works of man. But if Christ is dwelling in His heart, He will find plenty
of works to do.

Brethren, don’t be so anxious about works. If you find the

Lord Jesus Christ you will find work, more than you can do. [Congre-
gation: “Amen!”] But the difficulty is, when the people get their minds
on works and works and works instead of upon Jesus Christ in order to
work, they pervert the whole thing. Satan does not care how much a
man professes justification by faith and righteousness by faith, so long
as he keeps his mind on works.

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 That is just the thought that is before us here in this definition
of faith that we read the other night. When we speak of faith there is
a distinction that should be borne in mind. There is a kind of belief
that is wholly distinct from faith. The existence and power of God,
the truth of His word, are facts that even Satan and his hosts cannot
at heart deny. They believe that, but what power does their believing
it bring to them to make them righteous or to enable them to do good
works? What power is there in their belief? What power does that give
to them? [Congregation: “None.”]

No, their belief is held from a distance, simply as a theory,

held up to look at as a theory and a creed. Even a spirit can believe in
the existence and power of God and the truth of the Bible; he can even
believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Holy One of God,
and be a devil. He can believe all this and profess justification by faith
at the same time, and he can be a great stickler for what they call “good
works” at the same time. Yes, he can work the very skin off his bones in
order to be good and righteous, and in order to move God as we read
the other night. As you know, they make pilgrimages and do penances
and fairly wear themselves out, and in addition to these things they
will shut themselves off from every earthly comfort.

But who is doing the work? Who in these things does the
work? It is self who does the work in order to be righteous. Self does
the work in order to have that treasure of merit that will give an in-
crease of grace in this world and an increase of glory in heaven. That
is what it is for, is it not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Who is doing it then?
[Congregation: “Self”] Yes sir. Has the mind and the heart been yield-
ed to God? Are the affections fixed upon Him? Is the surrender of all
to Him? No. And therefore it is still self that is in all of it. Who then is
to do the work in order that it may be good works always? Let us read
again: “If Christ is dwelling in our hearts, He will work in us ‘both to
will and to do of his good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:13)” (Steps to Christ,
page 75).

“We shall work as He works; we shall manifest the same spirit.

And thus, loving Him and abiding in Him, we shall ‘grow up into Him
in all things, which is the head, even Christ’ (Ephesians 4:15)” (Ibid).
Now then, that is what the Lord wants and that is what the mind of
Christ is. I cannot have the mind of Christ separate from Him. I can-
not have the mind of Christ without having Him personally. But the
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personal presence of Jesus Christ is just what He wants to give us by
the Holy Spirit in the outpouring of the latter rain just now. The per-
sonal presence of Christ is what He wants to give us.

What it Really Means to Have Faith

Let’s look at the rest of that definition of belief. A person may

believe in the existence and power of God and the truth of the Bible
and he may even believe and say that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the
Son of God, the Holy One of God, and yet be a devil. That is not faith.
There is no power in that kind of belief to help anybody. Isn’t that the
key point regarding true faith? The point that the truth must not be
kept in the outer court, but must be brought into the inner sanctuary
of the soul? Isn’t that what all this means? [Congregation: “Yes.”] In
the false view, the idea is that men hold the truth at a distance and look
at it as merely a theory. They put their own construction upon it and
their own interpretation into it, and then go about of themselves to do
what they believe. That is not faith.

Here is faith: “Where there is not only a belief in God’s word,

but a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him,
the affections fixed upon Him” (Steps to Christ, page 63). Now these
are weighty expressions and all worth considering. “The submission of
the will to Him”—is it done? Is your will submitted to Him, never to
be taken back or exercised in your own way? Is your will surrendered
to Him? Yours? Yours, I mean? Does He have your will? Says one, “I
think He has.” Well, you want to know it.

“Well,” says another, “I have been trying to submit my will to

Him.” Well, stop your trying and submit your will to Him and be done
with it and know it. “The submission of the will to Him”—is your will
submitted to Him? Is it gone so that you know it is gone, and that you
have no wish or impulse or any inclination ever in any situation to use
it yourself? Is it gone? You can know it! You can know whether that
is done. [Voice: “How?”] How? Why by doing it, telling the Lord it is
done and it is so. Of course, a man knows it is so when it is done. [A
voice: “If he does not know it, it is not done.”] Exactly.

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 If a man does not know it, that is the strongest possible evi-
dence that he could have that it is not done. And when it is done, ah!
He knows it! That is the very thing. When it is done he becomes a
spiritual man, and he knows what he never knew before in his life. The
natural man cannot receive it, he cannot understand it and he never
will. How in the world can I understand what there is in the doing of
a thing I never did? Imagine some task that you have done. You know
very well how to do that thing.

On the other hand, imagine a task that I have never done and
yet I want you to explain it all to me so that I will understand just how
it is done, without having done it for myself. Brethren, when it comes
to the submission of the will, that will not work. For that to be known,
it can be known only between God and the individual himself. “They
shall be all taught of God” (John 6:45). One can tell another that it is a
fact and one can tell another that he knows that it is a fact, but no one
can give it to another. My brother cannot get it from me. I can tell him
it is a fact, and that he can know it himself, but he must learn it from
God. You do it simply by yielding to God. That is the only way any
man can do it or know it. Lots of people do not understand how, but
the worst difficulty is they will not do it when you tell them how.

Submitting the Will to Him

Now I ask again, is your will submitted to Him? Is that thing

done? Have you gone over that barrier and stand where you know that
your will is surrendered to Him? Surrendered for Him to use in His
way, and that there is no further question about it and no dissent from
it in any way? Now is your will submitted to God for Him to use as He
pleases and you have no objection to raise at all? Is it so submitted that
you have no thought or inclination to use it in your way and you want
Him to do His way, and that is all you care for? Is that so? Is your will
there? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Are any here in whom it is not so? You just go and tell the
Lord all about it. Tell Him, “Lord, I submit everything to You. Ev-
erything goes and nothing stays. I do not retain a single thing. It is all

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gone. Everything is gone, I give my will and all I have to You. So that
You may use it both to will and to do.” Brethren, we need everyone
here to do just that each day. The Lord wants to come in here in just
the way that that kind of surrender will allow.

But as long as I reserve some of my will, I will go my way in

spite of myself and I cannot have God use me fully. He cannot come
in fully. Christ cannot come in fully unless there is a full submission to
Him. Let there be some dying here. Let there be some actual dying to
self. That is what it means - it means death, and of course people never
struggle to die. They struggle to stay alive, if there are any struggles.
Bear in mind that it is not enough to “want” to die. Go ahead and die,
because that is what the Lord wants.

Says one, “How shall I do that?” He tells us how: “Consid-

er yourselves also to be dead indeed” (Romans 6:11). Dead indeed.
Brother Durland read to us here yesterday, “He that is dead is freed
from sin” (Romans 6:7). It is so. “Consider yourselves also to be dead
indeed unto sin,” and God will furnish the fact. The point is, brethren,
that we need to get acquainted with the Lord. The trouble is, people are
not personally acquainted with the Lord and do not know how these
things are with Him.

“Where the heart is yielded to Him.” How much of it? [Con-

gregation: “All of it.”] Is it done? [Congregation: “Yes.”] The whole
heart is gone? Everything is gone? Well, says one, “I have yielded all
that I know.” Well now, just take the other step and yield all you do
not know. [Elder O. S. Ferren: When a person does that, is he poor,
and miserable?] Elder Jones: Yes sir. [Elder Ferren: And naked and
blind?] Elder Jones: Yes sir. [Elder Ferren: And does not know it?] El-
der Jones: I say Yes, of course he is. But, thank the Lord, he has riches
that embrace the universe.

Says one, “I cannot understand that.” Well I cannot either, but

I know it is a fact. Why brethren, let us bear this in mind to start with
and try never to forget it, because the further you go, the more you will
see it is a fact. When we take hold of the gospel of Jesus Christ just as
it is, we find at every turn and in every phase that it is the mystery of
God.

At every point and in every turn, you find a place and a situ-

65
ation in which nothing can explain it but God, and all you can do is
to believe that God is there. It is so and you will know the fact, and let
Him go ahead and explain it. It will take eternity to do that. He wants
you and I to be glad that we have an eternity before us in which He can
explain this to us. I personally am going to be glad that I have eternity
to live in, and not bother about whether I understand this, that, or the
other. No. God forbid that we should throw away eternal life because
we cannot understand all that God understands. But, ah! There is that
same spirit again that Satan had—to be equal with God and not sub-
mit unless we can understand all. Let that mind be put away. And let
us believe the Lord and let Him take His own good time to explain it.

Well then, is your heart yielded to Him? Now regarding that

thought I had a moment ago – many say, “I have surrendered to the
Lord all I know.” That is not enough. What you want to do is to sur-
render to Him all you know and all you do not know. Because when
I surrender to Him only what I know, there are a good many things
left out that I do not know. There are a good many situations that I
will meet, many things will come up, and I will inevitably meet some-
thing that will be very attractive and desirable to me, and if I have not
surrendered all, what then? There will be a contest as to whether I will
surrender that or not.

Then I am kept constantly in hot water to know whether I am

surrendered to the Lord or not. The Lord wants you to get out of the
hot water, and stay out. Surrender everything you know and every-
thing you do not know. Let everything go to Him, with no reservation
now or evermore. Then, you are not afraid of anything. You do not
care if you drop into the bottom of the sea the next minute. It is all
surrendered. Then you are in His hands, and then you have got some-
thing. That man has got something that he has never had before, and
he has something that he cannot get until he does just that thing.

Fixing your Affections upon Him

“The affections fixed upon Him.” Are your affections fixed

there so that He takes precedence over everything? So that He is first

66
before everything? So that nothing at all is coming into the account,
anywhere or at any time? Is that so? When a man does that, he has
got something. He indeed has something, and he knows it. Well, says
one, “Is not a man to care for his wife and children? Why, they are all
surrendered to the Lord too, and cannot the Lord care for them a great
deal better than you can without being surrendered to Him?”

When my affections are fixed upon Him, they are not severed
from those who are dear to me – on the contrary, when my affections
are fixed upon him, they are intensified and deepened and glorified
upon those who are tenderly connected with me. Why, people miss it
all when they think that to fix the affections on God is going to sepa-
rate them from somebody they like while on the earth. In contrast, it
is the only way they can love properly those whom they think they like
on the earth.

Well now, is it so? Is the will submitted to Him? Is your heart

yielded to God, so that your affections are fixed upon Him? Is it done,
so that you can stand before Him and thank the Lord that it is so? I do
not mean that we should stand up in the congregation and say that it
is so, but just tell the Lord that it is so. People will get up in the congre-
gation and say things there that they will not say to the Lord. You tell it
to the Lord. Tell Him that your will is given up bodily to Him. Submit
the whole thing without a particle of reservation now or evermore.
Tell Him that your heart is yielded up to Him and that your heart is
good for nothing, and that you want His heart instead of yours. Tell
Him that you want your affections fixed upon Him and there alone.
Tell that to Him all the time and every day. Tell that to Him wherever
you go.

Live with Him brethren; live with Him. Live with Him, for
that is what He wants. He is raised from the dead, and we are raised up
with Him that we may live with Him (Rom. 6:8). His personal pres-
ence is to be with us. That is what the Laodicean message is to do for
us— it is to bring the presence of Christ to live in us. This you can do
alone for yourself and nobody else can do it for you.

Brethren, let us go to doing that. Let us get into that place.

When a man is in that place, he simply waits on the direction and
timing of the Lord. When the Lord gets ready to pour out His Holy
Spirit, there is nothing to hinder. If there be something that he does
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not know, he does not have to worry, as it was surrendered long ago.
It may be as dear as the right eye, but that went long ago. It is gone,
thank the Lord, and so there is nothing between you and Him and He
can pour out His Spirit whenever He pleases. That is where He wants
you and me to stand, waiting for Him to give us that teaching of righ-
teousness according to righteousness.

Having the Fullness of Christ

Now how much of Christ are we to have? When the person-

al presence of Christ comes to us, He will be closer to us than if He
would come in here and meet with us every day. That is the gospel, is it
not? That is the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ.
That is the gospel, “for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17). Some may say, “Oh no! From faith to
works! The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to works!” No,
my friends. “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.”

Thank the Lord. The presence of Christ, the personal presence

of Christ—”Christ in you the hope of glory”—that is the gospel, isn’t
it? There is not any need of a particle of misunderstanding about this
question of faith and works or a particle of hesitation about it. Christ
was in the world once, wasn’t He? He did not do anything of Himself.
“Of mine own self I can do nothing” (John 5:30). The Father dwelt in
Him. He did the works. “The Father that dwelleth in Me He does the
works” (John 14:10). “As my Father has sent me, even so send I you.”

As God was in Christ, Christ is to be in us. Is Christ the same

yesterday, today and forever? How did He act when He was on earth,
in our flesh that He had? How did He act in that, when He was here
before? He went about doing good and cared for the sick, He sympa-
thized with them. “He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows”
(Isaiah 53:4). He bears our sickness. His sympathy with the sick was
so close that when He went to minister to them, He actually entered
into their feelings. He actually bore their sicknesses. How will He act
when He is in our flesh now? He will act the same way. How will He
act when He is in your flesh? When He is in the flesh now? As He acted

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then.

Don’t you see then how the works will take care of themselves
in him who has faith in Jesus Christ? I do not mean the satanic false
belief – I mean the man that has true faith. Then don’t you see what
those people are missing who get their minds on works more than on
Christ? They miss the very incentive and the very power that alone can
do the things that are good. They miss the ability to reach and minister
to the sick in the right spirit and to visit the poor and minister to them
in the right spirit. Haven’t you seen people that have ministered to the
poor and the sick in a way that makes those people feel worse than if
they had not gone to them at all? That is not the kind of ministering
that Jesus Christ does. That is not the kind of ministering He does. No
sir. It is Christ in you. And when He goes with you and is in you, it is
there that the testimony will come even from the worldly, that we are
like Jesus.

What does He want the world to see in us? [Congregation:

“Christ.”] He wants the world to see in our lives, Jesus Christ—the life
of Christ, Christ in you the hope of glory—and they will know it, and
you will know it. Be sure that Christ is there, and the Spirit of the Lord
will convey to peoples’ minds that He is there. But as certainly as you
and I appear instead of Christ, that is all that will appear and the world
will see only that. Now brethren, is there any real need of anybody
having any misunderstanding at all about whether righteousness by
faith or justification by faith carries with it (in itself) the very living
virtue of God to work in God’s way? Is there any need of it? No.

Not the least. And it will never be done by any mind that is
submissive to God. It will not be done by the mind that is yielded to
God and wanting to have God’s way, Christ first and last, and through
all and in all and over all. When he becomes so acquainted with Christ,
faith in Jesus Christ will bring to him that divine presence, power, vir-
tue and grace. It will so move upon him, that of all the people of the
world, his faith will work beyond them all. You cannot separate faith
and works. The divine life and power and the divine word is in it.

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 Striving with the Strength of Christ

Did not Paul strive, says one, and does not the Savior say,
“Strive to enter in at the strait gate”? Yes, He does, and Paul tells us
how. Let us turn and read that. It is in the first chapter of Colossians,
the 25th verse and onward: The gospel “whereof I am made a minister,
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to
fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid from
ages and generations but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles.” What is it that God wants to make known at this
time, to you and me? He wants to make known “what is the riches of
the glory of this mystery.” That is a great deal, is it not? How great are
the riches of the glory of the mystery of God? How great? As great
as God. Then how can we know them except by the mind of Christ,
which is brought to us by the Holy Spirit bringing His presence?

Reading further: “Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all
wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: where-
unto I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in
me mightily.” How can I strive when I have nothing to strive with?
“Without me ye can do”--How much? [Congregation: “Nothing.”] Is
that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then without Christ I want to know
how you are going to strive. Without Him how are you going to strive?
I want you to think of that. “Without me ye can do nothing.” “Dead in
trespasses and sins.” Is that so? How can a dead man strive? “When
we were without strength” (Rom. 5:6). Were we without strength?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] That is so. Then how can a man strive who has
no strength? Don’t you see then, that it is an utter satanic perversion of
the divine idea, to go to striving and working and wearing the life out
in order to get to Christ to obtain this gift of justification? No. It is the
free gift of God to every man, and every man who receives it, receives
Jesus Christ Himself indeed.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto every one
that believes. Then he who surrenders and yields all and obtains that
power of God (that living Savior who has been given all power in heav-
en and earth), he has something to strive with and he has strength
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that he can put to a good purpose. He has power with which he can
do something. Then where does the striving come in? Is it find the
Lord or to use the power which the Lord gives, which He puts into us?
Which is it? [Voice: “To use the power.”] Assuredly.

Then do not let us get it on the wrong side, brethren. Let us

have it on the right side. “Striving according to His working, which
works in me mightily.” As he says in that other place; “The love of
Christ constrains us” (2 Cor. 5:14). Constrains, impels, or drives on
with an irresistible force. That is the idea that is in the word striving.
Other translations give it, “agonize” to enter into the strait gate. And
they do really and bodily agonize and wear themselves out, doing pen-
ance just like any other Catholic. They will do it all in order to move
the Lord, so that He will have pity on them. That is not the thought.

It is agonizing, but everybody who is acquainted with it knows

that the word is taken from the Greek games, the Greek races. One
who entered the games was an “agonisties”. They started out to run a
race. Now what does he do? He just strains every nerve to win the race;
every faculty of his being is devoted to the object before him, isn’t it?
[Congregation: “Yes sir.”] Now that is bodily exercise; that is bodily
striving, agonizing. Is this that kind that Christ is talking about? [Con-
gregation: “No.”]

What kind is this? Spiritual. Yes, of course. Then carrying that

thought from bodily exercise and the straining of every nerve and car-
rying that into the spiritual realm, what does it signify? Doesn’t it sig-
nify that complete surrender of the will to Christ, that surrender of the
heart and the affections to Him, a surrender that makes no reserve?
And there is no reservation; it yields everything to Him, every fiber
of the being is devoted to the one object and the glory of God. Is not
that so? Then it is His power moving us, His divine power urging us
on, don’t you see? I say again that in all cases, he who believes in Jesus
Christ will most fully work for Him.

Now let us have this word as we close. Steps to Christ, page 71:
“The heart that rests most fully upon Christ will be the most earnest
and active in labor for Him.” Amen. Do not forget that now. Do not
think that the man who says that he rests wholly upon Jesus Christ is
either a physical or a spiritual loafer. If he shows this loafing in his life,
he is not resting on Christ at all, but on his own self. No sir, the heart
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that rests most fully upon Christ will be most earnest and active in
labor for Him. That is what real faith is. That is faith that will bring to
you the outpouring of the latter rain, that is faith that will bring to you
and me the teaching of righteousness according to righteousness. That
will bring to us the living presence of Jesus Christ to prepare us for the
loud cry and the carrying of the third angel’s message in the only way
in which it can be carried.

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73
 CHAPTER FIVE
Spiritualism and the Carnal Mind

We have seen the manifestation of the natural mind, the car-

nal mind in two of its ways: paganism and papacy. But there is another
one that is modern. There is one that has arisen nowadays, another
trick that the author of the carnal mind is playing and by which he will
deceive lots of people if they have not the mind that is in Christ. Now
whose mind is the carnal mind? [Congregation: “Satan’s.”] What is
the thing that the carnal mind does mind? [Congregation: “Self.”] In
Satan it is self and in us it is self.

We have seen how that in open, bold, naked paganism, it put

in the place of God (equal with God), the immortality of the soul. Then
we have found how that when Christianity came into the world, this
same carnal mind got up a counterfeit and covered itself (the same
carnal mind) with a form of Christianity, and called it justification
by faith when it was all justification by works. That is the papacy, the
mystery of iniquity.

Now there is another development in Satan’s working in the

last days, separate from paganism as it was in itself, and separate from
the papacy as it was in itself, and as it has been manifested so far. Is
that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] In what form does that come? In what
form does Satan work in the last days? [Congregation: “Spiritualism.”]
Yes, and this will exalt self. But will spiritualism always work in the
name of Satan? [Congregation: “No.”] The nearer we come to the sec-
ond coming of the Savior, the more fully spiritualism will be profess-
ing Christ. Who is it that comes before the Savior comes, many of
them? [Congregation: “False Christs.”]

There will be many coming and saying, “I am Christ”; and at

last Satan himself comes. Does he come as Satan? [Congregation: “No.
As Christ.”] He comes as Christ and he is received as Christ. So then
the people of God must be so well acquainted with the Savior, that no
profession of the name of Christ will be received or accepted where
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it is not the actual, genuine thing. But when false Christianity is pre-
senting itself to the world, when every kind of a false Christ appears,
then how alone can a person be safe? How shall a man know that these
things are false? Only by Him who is the true and only by having His
mind itself.

Now I want to read you an expression of this last phase of the

carnal mind. We have read about the other two. We have read about
the pagan and the papal. Now when we read this last one, then we will
have all three of the stages. We will have before us the dragon, the
beast, and the false prophet. And then there will be no shadow of an
excuse for any one of us, after that, to take any other position than that
which is openly and itself alone the mind of Jesus Christ and the righ-
teousness of God according to His idea of righteousness. Will there?
No excuse.

When we see before us the direct expression of the false way

in all three of its forms, then even though we are not able to fully un-
derstand the true, we will know to leave the false way alone, and take
the true, whether we see it fully or not. Wouldn’t we rather let the devil
go that we see, and accept the Lord that we cannot see as clearly as we
would like to? Which would you rather? I would rather take the Lord
with my eyes shut, than the devil with my eyes open.

I am going to share now from a monthly publication and I

will tell you what it is presently, but I will read a passage or two from it
first. This is a discipline for the week, a course of training for each day
of the week. “Let Thursday be your day for declaring your faith.” See
what the faith is. “Say, ‘I do believe that God is now working with me
and through me and by me and for me.’ Say it with a sure certainty,
for it is true. “On Friday be courageous and strong and powerful; over-
come all obstacles by your word; say, ‘I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me.’ Say this with all the strength of your being, and
I tell you that you can do just whatever you want to do, even to the
working of miracles.” Now that is a lie. That you all may see that it is
a lie, I read Wednesday’s discipline: “On Wednesday use the affirma-
tions; not only the affirmations of science, but affirm all good things in
yourself.” [Voice from the congregation: “That proves it is a lie.”]

Don’t they say God is working in me, and by me, and for me,
and through me? When we have come to Jesus and have His righ-
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teousness and His goodness, then can’t we affirm that we are good?
[Congregation: “No.”] What is the reason? [Congregation: “It is in
Christ; it is not in us.”] You are willing to admit then, that when you
have found Jesus and all the wealth and the honor and power and the
riches that there is in Him, that even then we cannot boast that we
are good? Are you willing to admit that? are you? [Voice: “Yes sir.”]
Are you? [Voice: “Yes sir.”] All right. That is not near all. I read more:
“Affirm all good things in yourself. Praise yourself that you are so kind
and loving, and that you are so honest in your intentions of serving the
good. Praise yourself that you are so steadfast in these same intentions;
praise yourself because you are so strong and healthy.”

Yes, perhaps praise yourself because you live up so strictly

to the health reform so that you have good health. You have done it,
should you praise yourself for it? “Praise yourself because you have
such a sweet charitable disposition.” You can do that, can’t you? [Con-
gregation: “No.”] Not when your sins are forgiven, and you are free
from all these things by the power of Christ? Can’t you praise yourself
then for your sweet charitable disposition, that you have got such a
good one? [Congregation: “No sir.”]

But I read more: “Praise yourself because you see only the
good in everybody and everything in all the world. Praise yourself for
every good thing that you do see in yourself and for every good thing
that you want to see in yourself. . . . You must praise for the good char-
acteristic that is there to strengthen it, and praise for the good trait that
seems lacking to compel it to appear, for you know that by the fruit of
your lips, it will be created for you.”

Now that is what is called “Christian Science.” A brother

handed me a copy of that thing the other day. The title is “Christian
Science,” and on the cover is a quotation of Scripture: “My words shall
not pass away.” Now, brethren, is it not about time that we began to
believe the scriptures and the Testimonies? Isn’t it about time we had
the mind of Jesus Christ? [Congregation: “Amen!”] This statement has
bothered many of the brethren every time that it has been read. “Are
you in Christ? Not if you do not acknowledge yourselves erring, help-
less, condemned sinners” (The Faith I Live By, pg. 94). You are not in
Christ unless you acknowledge yourself to be that.

Now is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Are you willing to stick

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to that, whether you understand how it is so or not? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] Will you stick to it in the face of paganism, the papacy and
spiritualism, in all their phases? Then I want to know, why in the world
it is not time for you and I to have a mind that will say “no” and not
“Amen” to the type of thoughts that I read from this anti-Christian
Science thing?

Our Righteousness is from God Alone

I read on: “Are you in Christ? Not if you do not acknowledge

yourselves erring, helpless, condemned sinners. Not if you are exalt-
ing and glorifying self.” Then although these folks quote the words
of Christ, it is all counterfeit. You know we are told that when Satan
himself comes with the gracious words that the Savior uttered, he will
speak them with much the same tone and will pass it off as true to
those who have not the mind of Christ. Brethren, there is no salvation
for us, there is no safety for us, indeed there is no remedy for us at all,
but to have the mind of Christ. And it goes through all our works, too.
It is not simply for the minister. It is for everyone. Don’t you remem-
ber the other day in the talk that Dr. Kellogg gave us on the medical
missionary work, how that he saw and had seen for a long time, the
lack in the systems of medicine, to reach and make easy the mind?
Don’t you remember that he told us that he realized this lack in all
medical practice?

He had found in their practice all the way through that there
was a defect in the medical systems. He found that there was nothing
in their system that would reach and relieve the mind and turn it off
from the diseased souls, that the body might go ahead and get well
by the treatment that the physicians would give it. Brethren, has not
Christ supplied just that lack that is in all medical systems, in His own
medical system that He has given us by His own Spirit? The mind of
Christ, for the nurse and for the physician, to be carried to the dis-
tressed, the diseased, the suffering and the perishing. Christ’s system,
which serves to get the mind of the sufferer upon Jesus Christ and have
His mind, taking it away from self.

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 Then when the patient is at rest, the physician can go ahead
and doctor the body and it will get well, while the patient is enjoy-
ing the blessings and peace of Jesus Christ and the mind which He
gives. Don’t you see how it goes through all your work and it is the one
thing everywhere? This part is not new to the doctor either. But as he
was telling us about the defect in the medical systems, I want you to
see that the mind of Christ will supply the defect. However, “you are
not in Christ, if you are exalting and glorifying self.” “If there is any
good in you, it is wholly attributable to the mercy of a compassionate
Saviour. Your birth, your reputation, your wealth, your talents, your
virtues, your piety, your philanthropy, or anything else in you or con-
nected with you, will not form a bond of union between your soul and
Christ.”

Now, is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Elder Underwood:

“Please read that over again.” “Your birth, your reputation, your
wealth, your talents, your virtues, your piety, your philanthropy, or
anything else in you or connected with you [even your good works]
will not form a bond of union between your soul and Christ. Your
connection with the church, the manner in which your brethren re-
gard you, will be of no avail unless you believe in Christ.

It is not enough to believe about Him [the word “about” is

italicized]; but you must believe in Him.” “In him.” What does that
mean? “You must rely wholly upon his saving grace.” That is Christi-
anity. That is the mind of Christ. There is no “devilism” about that at
all; and it can’t get in there, either. Why, you find it also in “Steps to
Christ.” Not stated exactly as that. I will read a passage or two from
Steps to Christ, beginning on page 67 and reading to page 71: “The
condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been--just what
it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents--perfect obedience
to the law of God, perfect righteousness.”

How to Get Perfect Obedience

And if you and I do not have that, we will never have eternal
life – now or at any other time. If you and I have not “perfect obedi-

78
ence to the law of God” from the first breath we ever drew until this
one now, and until the last one we ever draw, then eternal life does not
belong to us. But just as certainly as you and I have “perfect obedience
to that law of God,” then eternal life is ours at that very moment. But
that “perfect obedience” must be from the first breath we ever drew
until this one, now, tonight, and it must be until the last one we ever
do draw, even though it be ten thousand years from now, in the depths
of eternity. I am not asking whether you understand this, brothers;
believe it, and you will understand it. “Well, doesn’t this contradict
something that has been preached before?” It does not contradict what
I have been preaching; it is exactly what I have preached all the time,
and what every other man preaches who preaches the gospel.

“The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has

been--just what it was in paradise before the fall of our first par-
ents--perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If
eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the hap-
piness of the whole universe would be imperiled. … We have no righ-
teousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God”
(Steps to Christ, page 62). That is so. Then how in the world are we ever
going to have eternal life? [Congregation: “Through Christ.”]

Ah! “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord” (Romans 6:23b). But we have got to have “perfect righteous-
ness” before we can have that gift, don’t you see? Oh then, just like the
Lord, He comes and says, “Here, in Christ, is perfect righteousness;
here is perfect obedience to the law of God from birth to the grave; you
take that and that will fully meet the condition on which alone, anyone
can have eternal life.” All right. Are you not glad of it? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] I am so glad of it that I don’t know what else to do than to be
glad. Oh, He wants me to have eternal life. I haven’t a thing to merit
it; I haven’t a thing that will meet the condition upon which alone it
can be granted. Everything that I have would ruin the universe if He
should grant me eternal life upon it.

Well, He can’t do that; but He wants me to have eternal life;

He wants me to have it so bad that He died that I might have it. [Con-
gregation: “Amen!”] And oh then again I say, it is just like God, who
is love, as He is. He comes and says, “Here, in Christ, is perfect obe-
dience from the first breath you ever drew until the last one, and you
take Him and His righteousness and then you have got the other (eter-
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nal life).” That is the condition. Good! Good! Yes sir. “We have no
righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of
God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us” (Ibid). Thank the
Lord!

“He lived on earth amid trials and temptations such as we

have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us and now he offers
to take our sins and give us His righteousness” (Ibid). What a trade!
What a trade! Brethren, isn’t it awful that men will so hesitate and lin-
ger and dally before they will surrender up everything and make that
blessed trade? Isn’t it awful? “If you give yourself to Him, and accept
Him as your Savior, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His
sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of
your character and you are accepted before God just as if you had not
sinned.” Yes sir, you and I, when we have done that, you and I stand
before God just as though we had never committed a sin in this world-
-just as though we had been angels all the time. Brethren, God is good!
He is good! Oh, our Savior is a wonderful Savior! Brethren, that is so.

God Changes the Heart

Let us let Him have His own way. “More than this.” Could
there possibly be anything more? Why the Lord says so: “More than
this, Christ changes the heart; He abides in your heart by faith.” That
is the blessedness of it. What good would eternal life do me with such
a heart? No, He does not stop at that; He changes the heart. “You are
to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual sur-
render of your will to Him. And so long as you do this, He will work
in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure” (Philippians
2:13).

So you may say, “God has given us permission to say, He has

told us that we may say… ‘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.’ Jesus said to His disciples, ‘It is not you who is speaking, but the
Spirit of your Father who speaks.’ Then with Christ working in you,
you will manifest the same spirit and do the same works.” You can’t

80
do otherwise. Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the
same here in our flesh now, as He was when he was here before in the
flesh—working “works of righteousness and obedience.” So we have
nothing in ourselves of which to boast.”

Thank the Lord. Do not begin to boost yourself up and to

boast of yourself, and say, “I am rich now, and increased in goods;
now I am wise; now I am all right.” No. Isn’t the man that will say that
at such a time as that, isn’t he the worst creature in this universe? How
could he be worse? When he was entirely lost, helpless and undone,
and he confessed it and said so, and then the Lord has such wonderful
compassion that He gives him everything He has in the universe, and
then that man stands up and begins to boast of how good he is and
how great he is; what greater reproach could he possibly put on the
goodness of the Lord? No sir. “Let him that glories, glory in the Lord.”
[Congregation: “Amen!”] Let us do it then. “So we have nothing in
ourselves of which to boast. We have no ground for self-exaltation.”
The man that takes Jesus as He is, will always be humble. It makes a
man humble to take Christ by faith. But if he does not take Him by
faith, but earns it, of course he has something to boast about.

Our Only Hope is in Christ

“Our only ground for hope is in the righteousness of Christ

imputed to us and in–” What do you suppose is the next phrase? “Our
only ground for hope is in the righteousness of Christ imputed to us
and in that wrought by His Spirit working in and through us.” Our
only ground for hope is Christ’s righteousness imputed to us and this
righteousness wrought in us by the Holy Spirit is the works we do.
Then the very next paragraph is that about the satanic belief and what
genuine faith is, which we studied in previous lessons. It is all one sub-
ject. “The closer you come to Jesus, the more faulty you will appear in
your own eyes; for your vision will be clearer, and your imperfections
will be seen in broad and distinct contrast to His perfect nature. This is
evidence that Satan’s delusions have lost their power.”

What is the condition of that man then who begins to think

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himself pretty good and praises himself? Satan’s delusion is upon him.
Even if he has lived with the Lord fifteen or twenty years, if he begins
now to think he is quite good—what is the condition of that man? He
is deluded by Satan. He is under satanic delusions. That is all. There
was a man that lived with Jesus Christ thirty years. When he first be-
gan, in the earliest years of his life with Christ, he said, “I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ lives 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).

Also, nearly thirty years after this near the close of his life, he
said this: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I” was chief
(1 Timothy 1:15)? [Congregation: “Am chief.”] No, was chief. [Con-
gregation: “No, ‘Am chief.’”] Oh, no. When he was Saul of Tarsus,
persecuting the saints, then he was the chief of sinners. [Congregation:
No. “Am chief.”] Amen. Exactly.

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I

AM chief.” When? [Congregation: “Now.”] When he had lived thirty
years with Jesus Christ? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Yes. “I am chief.” Oh,
he had such a view of the Lord Jesus, of His holiness, of His perfect
purity, that when He looked at Himself, he considered Himself as sep-
arated from Christ and that he was the worst of all men. That is Chris-
tianity. That is the mind of Christ. The other is the mind of Satan.

“This is evidence that Satan’s delusions have lost their power;

that the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God is arousing you. No
deep-seated love for Jesus can dwell in the heart that does not realize
its own sinfulness. The soul that is transformed by the grace of Christ
will admire His divine character; but if we do not see our own moral
deformity, it is unmistakable evidence that we have not had a view
of the beauty and excellence of Christ. The less we see to esteem in
ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and
loveliness of our Savior” (Steps to Christ, pgs. 64-65).

That is Christianity, brethren. Now let us go to studying the

Bible for just what it says. What do you say? Brethren, we are in a fear-
ful position here at this Conference, at this meeting. It is just awful. I
said that once before, but I realize it tonight more than I did then. I
can’t help it, brethren. I can’t help it. We are in a fearful position here.
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Not a soul of us ever dreams what fearful destinies hang on the days
that pass by here. [Elder Olsen: “That is so.”] That is so. Brethren, as
the days go on, is our earnestness in seeking God deepening? Is it? Is
it? or is it rather coming to a lull?

When we started here, the first lessons were fresh and new.
They brought the truth in strong, plain, positive lines so we could see
clearly and they had an effect. Hearts were moved as the Scripture
says, “as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind” (Isaiah 7:2).
But brethren, has the breeze slackened up? What now? If our impres-
sions, our sense of need, our earnestness is not found deeper as these
meetings go on, then there is something the matter with each one of
us. I am not talking about us as a whole class merely in a general way;
the only way we can get at this is each one individually for himself. If
I am not doing that and if you are not doing that, there is something
wrong.

Covered with the Garment of His Righteousness

Now brethren, another thought. We have been obliged by the

Spirit of God, we have been obliged to look at the workings of the
carnal mind, and what it will do for man and how it will deceive him
in every way. How paganism, the papacy, and the image of the papacy
(the dragon, the beast and the false prophet) will deceive. We have
seen also that the Lord has a lesson in it for us also. Now, as we have
seen it, brethren, just let each one of us let go of all holds, let the soul
drop right out of everything into that childlike readiness to receive
what God has to give. [Congregation: “Amen!”] Let the searching of
heart go on, and also the confession of sin. Did not Jesus say to us, “Be
zealous therefore, and repent”? What does that “therefore” mean? For
this reason; for these reasons. But let us see what He said before that.

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I wish
you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm and neither
cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Because you say, I
am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing; and do
not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor and blind,

83
and naked: I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you
may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the
shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with
eyesalve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten:
be zealous therefore and repent” (Rev. 3:16-19). How much does that
“therefore” cover? All of it? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”]

The first thing He says is, “I know your works”, and the last,
“Be zealous therefore, and repent.” Are you ready to repent of your
works now? Are you? Are you ready to admit that your works that
you have done, are not as good as the way Jesus Christ would have
done them if He had been here Himself and done them instead of
you? [Voice: “Yes, a thousand times.”] Good. How much good are
these works going to do for you? Are they perfect? Are they righteous
works? “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Are there, or have there
been, any works of yours that have not been of faith? Works that have
had self in them?

Do not forget that garment that we are to buy. Remember that

it is “woven in the loom of heaven, and not one thread of human in-
vention” in it. Then if you and I have stuck up a single thread of our
invention in the life that we have professed to be living in Christ, we
have spoiled the garment. Brethren, do you suppose you and I have
gone on these fifteen or twenty years so absolutely perfect, that we
have never gotten a thread of human invention into our character by
our deeds? [Congregation: “No.”] Then we can repent of that, can’t
we? [Congregation: “Yes.”] For the few minutes that remain, let us
read a few passages of Scripture. First Isaiah 59:6. What chapter does
this 59th chapter follow? [Congregation: “The 58th.”]

When does the 58th chapter apply? [Congregation: “It applies

now.”] “Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cov-
er themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and
the act of violence is in their hands.” Then what have the people been
trying to do? What has that group of people been trying to do with
their works? [Congregation: “Cover themselves with their works.”]
When He says, “they shall not cover themselves with their works,” that
shows on the face of it that they have been trying to cover themselves
with their works. Now does He tell the truth? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Then when He says to you and me that we have been trying

84
to cover ourselves with our works, is He not really trying to say that,
whatever we may profess, we are still trusting in righteousness or jus-
tification by works? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then is not that what the
Laodicean message means when it says, “I know your works.” And
what have our works done for us? Made us wretched, and misera-
ble, and poor, and blind, and naked. What does He want us to have?
“White raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your
nakedness does not appear.”

What is our condition? You know well enough that our ef-
forts at that have not accomplished much. Everyone has tried to do
his very best and you know yourself that it was the most discouraging
thing that you ever tried to do in this world. You know yourself that
you have actually sat down and cried because you could not do well
enough to risk the Judgment. [voice: “Could not do well enough to
satisfy ourselves.”] No. We ourselves were able to see our nakedness
when we had tried our best to cover ourselves. You know that is so.
Now brethren, the Lord said so, didn’t He? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”]
Is it not time that we said, “Lord, that is so?” I quote it: “Neither shall
they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniq-
uity, and the act of violence is in their hands.”

Now the Lord wants us to be covered; He wants us to be cov-

ered, so that the shame of our nakedness shall not appear. He wants us
to have His perfect righteousness according to His own perfect idea of
righteousness. He wants us to have that character that will stand the
test of the judgment without a hitch or a question or a doubt. Let us
accept it from Him as the free blessed gift it is. Now brethren, in the
next lesson, my thought is now that we will enter directly upon the
straightforward Scriptures. That we will see exactly what it says to you
and me as to how we can have Jesus Christ and all His righteousness
and everything that He has, without a particle of discount. What do
you say? [Congregation: “Amen.”]

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 CHAPTER SIX
Relying Upon the Holy Bible

We shall begin tonight just where we stopped the other eve-

ning. The thought was that we would now proceed to study this sub-
ject as it is in the Bible. I could take the time and read it all from the
Testimonies and Steps to Christ, but I could also preach it clearly from
the Bible. But I find this difficulty: The brethren seem so ready to be
content with what we read in the Spirit of prophecy and will not go
to the Bible to find it there. That is why the Testimonies and Steps to
Christ given to us. They are to lead us to see that it is in the Bible and
to help us get it there.

Now I shall avoid these purposely, not as though there was

anything wrong in using them, but what we want brethren is to study
the Bible and know where it is there. That is the Lord’s own way, as He
Himself has pointed out in the Testimonies. Let me read it here: “The
word of God is sufficient to enlighten the most beclouded mind and
may be understood by those who have any desire to understand it. But
notwithstanding all this, some who profess to make the Word of God
their study, are found living in direct opposition to its plain teachings.
Then to leave men and women without excuse, God gives plain and
pointed testimonies, bringing them back to the word that they have
neglected to follow” (Testimonies Vol. 2, pg. 454).

“The Word of God abounds in general principles for the for-

mation of correct habits of living and the Testimonies, general and
personal, have been calculated to call their attention more especially
to these principles” (Testimonies Vol. 4, pg. 323). “You are not familiar
with the Scriptures. If you had made God’s word your study with a de-
sire to reach the Bible standard and attain to Christian perfection you
would not have needed the Testimonies. It is because you have neglect-
ed to acquaint yourselves with God’s inspired Book that He has sought
to reach you by simple, direct testimonies, calling your attention to the
word of inspiration which you have neglected to obey. … Additional
truth is not brought out; but God has through the Testimonies simpli-
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fied the great truths already given and in His chosen way brought them
before the people to awaken and impress the mind with them, that all
may be without excuse. … The Testimonies are not to belittle the word
of God, but to exalt it and attract minds to it, that the beautiful simplic-
ity of truth may impress all” Testimonies, Vol. 2, pg. 605).

There is another reason also why we want to get this and see
that it is in the Bible. As we go from this Institute and this Conference,
we are to go forth to preach nothing else but just this one thing; the
message of the gospel. And when we preach, we are to preach to people
who do not believe in the Testimonies. The Scriptures have told us that
prophesyings are not for the unbelievers, but for them which believe.
“Tongues are a sign to them that believe not; prophesyings are a sign to
them that believe” (1 Cor. 14:22).

Now when we go and preach this message to people who do

not know anything about the Testimonies, we have to teach them that
the Bible says it and we have to teach from the Bible alone. If we were
preaching to our own people, to use the Testimonies and all these oth-
er helps would be all well enough. Even then though, if their minds
were turned to these and not brought by these to the Bible itself, then
that use of the Testimonies is not what is intended by the Lord as the
right use of them.

Now I have seen this same thing working another way. There is
that book that a great many make a great deal of, “The Christian’s Secret
of a Happy Life”. I have seen people who have read that book and got a
considerable good out of it. In fact, they considered it as great light and
found it encouraging and good, but even then they could not go to the
Bible and get it. Brethren, I want every one of you to understand that
there is more of the Christian’s secret of a happy life in the Bible than
in ten thousand volumes of that book. [Congregation: “Amen!”]

I did not see that book for a long time. I think it was about five
or six years ago when I first saw it. Somebody had it and was reading
it and asked me if I had seen it. I said, “No.” I was asked if I would read
it. I said, “Yes, I will read it,” and I did. But when I did read it, I knew
that I had already got more of the Christian’s secret of a happy life out
of the Bible that there is in that book to begin with.

I wish people would learn to get out of the Bible what is in it,

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directly. [Congregation: “Amen!”] If that book helps people to get that
secret in the Bible where there is a good deal more of it, all right. But
I knew that that book and its “secret to a happy life” cannot compare
the secret of a happy life that everyone can get in the Bible. I heard the
rumor once that I got my light out of that book. Here is the Book where
I got my Christian’s secret of a happy life (holding up the Bible), and
that is the only place. And I had it before I ever saw the other book or
knew it was in existence. And I say again, when I did finally read it, I
knew I had more of the Christian’s secret of a happy life than there is in
that book to begin with. And so will everyone else, who will read the
Bible and believe it.

Christ’s Righteousness and the Latter Rain

Now I want to ask a few questions on what we have gone over

so far. What is the latter rain? [Congregation: “The teaching of righ-
teousness according to righteousness.”] What is the loud cry? [Congre-
gation: “The message of the righteousness of Christ.”] The loud cry has
already begun in the message of the righteousness of Christ. Where
does the latter rain come from? [Congregation: “From God.”] All of it?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] What is it? [Congregation: “The Spirit of God.”]
Now let us just put the two things together. The teaching of righteous-
ness according to righteousness—the message of righteousness—that
is the loud cry; that is the latter rain; that is the righteousness of Christ.
Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] The latter rain comes down from
heaven.

How much of that latter rain comes out of me? [Congregation:

“None of it.”] How much of it can I manufacture? [Congregation: “Not
any.”] Now is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] I cannot manufacture any
of it? None of it springs from me at all? Where does it come from?
[Congregation: “Heaven.”] Will you take it that way? Will you receive
it from heaven? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Now that is where we came to
the other night. Are you ready to take it from heaven? [Congregation:
“Yes.”]

Is everybody in this house tonight willing and ready to take

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righteousness from heaven? Are we willing to take it according to God’s
plan, without asking that God shall get some of it from us? Are you?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] Whoever is willing to take righteousness from
heaven can receive the latter rain [Congregation: “Amen!”]. Whoever
is not willing, but wants the Lord to get some of it out of him, he can-
not have the latter rain. He cannot have the righteousness of God and
he cannot have the message of the righteousness of Christ.

What is the latter rain? [Congregation: “Righteousness.”] Are

we in the time of the latter rain? [Congregation: “Yes.”] What are we
to ask for? [Congregation: “Rain.”] What is it? [Congregation: “The
teaching of righteousness according to righteousness.”] Where is it to
come from? [Congregation: “Heaven.”] Can we have it? [Congrega-
tion: “Yes.”] Can we have it now? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then the latter
rain (the righteousness of God), His message of righteousness is also
the loud cry. That is what it is, and it is to come down from heaven. We
are now in the time of it and we are to ask for it and receive it. Then
what is to hinder us from receiving the latter rain now? [Congregation:
“Unbelief.”]

I will read a passage from this little book to start with. I want
to share a statement we have read once before: “As man’s Intercessor
and Advocate, Jesus will lead all who are willing to be led, saying, ‘Fol-
low me upward, step by step, where the clear light of the Sun of Righ-
teousness shines.’ But not all are following the light. Some are moving
away from the safe path, which at every step is a path of humility. God
has committed to His servants a message for this time. … I would not
now rehearse before you the evidences given in the past two years [four
years now] of the dealings of God by His chosen servants; but the pres-
ent evidence of His working is revealed to you and you are now under
obligation to believe” (Life Sketches, pg. 324).

Believe what? What message is there referred to that God has

given to His servants for this time? [Congregation: “The message of
righteousness.”] The message of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This
is a testimony that had been despised, rejected, and criticized for two
years, and two more years have passed since that time. But now the
present evidence of His working is revealed, and now what does God
say to every one of us? “You are now under obligation to believe” that
message. Then whoever does not believe it, simply has to answer to
God, does he not? That is all. Well then, let us begin. There is, however,
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another word to which I wish to call attention. You will remember that
I read Isaiah 59:6 in the last lesson. It was about those people who were
trying to cover themselves with their own works. In the fourth verse
we have these words: “None calleth for justice.”

After the lesson, Brother Starr called my attention to the Ger-

man translation which says: “None preaches righteousness.” I looked
at the revised version and that has it: “None sueth for righteousness,”
or the margin, “None calls for righteousness.” I looked at Young’s literal
translation and that likewise reads: “None calls for righteousness.” So
you see the thought as expressed in this verse, “None sueth,” that is to
say, to court – to ask for, to beseech, “for righteousness.” Nobody calls
for that. The same idea is conveyed in the German, only it is put in
other words, “None preaches righteousness.” Well, is not that what the
Lord says? They are trying to cover themselves with their own works
and that is not righteousness.

Isaiah 54, last sentence of the chapter: “This is the heritage

of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of Me, says the
Lord.” Their righteousness is of Whom? of themselves? [Congregation:
“Of the Lord.”] Their righteousness is of their works? No, “their righ-
teousness is of Me, says the Lord.” What do you say? [Congregation:
“Of the Lord.”] Their righteousness is of their works? No. “Their righ-
teousness is of me, says the Lord.” What do you say? [Congregation:
“Amen.”] Then any man who expects, looks for, or hopes for, any righ-
teousness that does not come from God – what then? What has he?
[Voice: “Filthy rags.”] It is no righteousness at all. Even those who want
to get it out of their own works, will it work that way? [Congregation:
“No.”] Is that of God? [Congregation: “No sir.”]

The only way that God can get into our works is by having
Him to start with, and having His righteousness to begin with. Our
only ground of hope is in the righteousness of Christ imputed to us,
and in that wrought in us by His Holy Spirit. This takes up the subject
exactly where Brother Prescott stopped. Do you see it is Christ in us,
that living presence that does the righteous work, and that is by the
Holy Spirit? That is what the Holy Spirit brings; that is the outpour-
ing of the latter rain, is it not? You see we cannot study anything else.
That is the message for us now. Shall we receive the message? When
we receive the message, what do we receive? [Congregation: “Christ.”]
When we receive Him what do we have? [Voice: “The Holy Spirit. The
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latter rain.”] This will come more fully afterward.

Believe that God Will Bring the Truth

Now another thing I want you to receive and not to put off
until after the meeting – the Lord wants you and I to come here each
evening and sit down and receive that just exactly as He gives it. Just
exactly as He says it. You just open your mind and heart to the Lord
and say, “Lord, that is so.” [Congregation: “Amen.”] Don’t wait until
you go out of the house. “Well,” says one, “are we to sit down here and
take everything that is said without any question at all?” No, not in that
sense. But we are to sit down here and have such a measure of the Spirit
of God that we can see what He gives through that Word which is the
truth, and then take it because it is the truth of God. [Congregation:
“Amen.”]

Elder D. C. Babcock then says: “Brother Jones, please read Job

29:23”. Very good, I will read that now. “And they waited for me as for
the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.” All
right. What shall we do? What does the Lord want us to do? Wait for
His Spirit as for rain. Open your mind and wait as for the latter rain.
What did He say by David? “Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it”
(Psalm 81:10). Brethren, let us sit down here and open our mouths just
like little birds – you know how they do. It looks as though the mouth
was all the bird there was. That is what He wants us to do.

Can we not trust God to give to us what He wants us to have?

Brethren, there is a question in that that I want to ask. When we come
into a place like this, coming with hundreds of people who are seeking
the Lord, coming to ask the way to Zion with our faces towards Him,
do we need to sit here suspiciously looking cross-eyed at the Lord as
though we did not dare to trust Him for what He would give? Is that
honest? [Congregation: “No.”] Is that fair? [Congregation: “No.”] No
sir. I believe this much in the Lord, that when we come together with
our hearts seeking Him, everyone that lays His heart wide open to re-
ceive what the Lord has to give, will not receive anything but what
God gives. And the man who comes into such a place as this, with

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His suspicions aroused and with a readiness to look suspiciously to
the Lord, that man is not treating the Lord as he ought to. H e
is treating the Lord just as a person might fairly treat the devil. Is he
not? Now brethren, let us treat the Lord honestly; let us be honest with
Him and He will be honest with us. “To the pure you show yourself
pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd” (Psalms 18:26). If
you and I treat the Lord honestly, He will treat us just exactly like God
treats people. So I say, we need not come into this house with a particle
of suspicion as to whether the Lord is going to give us things straight.
He will do it, and I am going to expect He will do it, and so I am going
to receive lots of blessing out of what He gives. That is settled.

Receive His Righteousness as a Gift

Now, let us read Romans 5:17: “For if by one man’s offense

death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of
grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus
Christ.” What is righteousness in that verse, then? [Congregation: “A
gift.”] Is it? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] “Their righteousness is of Me,
says the Lord.” It is a gift of righteousness. How does it come to us
then? [Congregation: “It is a gift.”] Now put those two things together:
“Their righteousness is of me” – it is a gift. He who receives it, what
does he receive? [Congregation: “A gift.”]

He who receives it as the gift that it is, receives what? [Congre-

gation: “Righteousness.”] According to what? God’s idea of righteous-
ness. Will He give us anything other than that which is righteousness in
His own sight and according to His own mind? [Congregation: “No.”]
Do you see that point? Then he who does not receive the righteousness
of God as the free gift of God, does He have it? [Congregation: “No.”]
And He cannot have it, you see, because it is a gift. It is of God. It comes
from God as the precious gift that it is. And therefore it, being of God,
and He giving it of His own gift, it is left to me to get it in His own way.
He gives what is His own and He gives it according to His own idea.
That is the genuine article; that is the righteousness of God alone.

Then don’t you see in that there can be no room for a single

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thread of human invention? We cannot get it in there at all. Don’t you
see what ample provision the Lord has made that we may have the
perfect robe which He Himself has woven, which is the righteousness
of God itself and which will make us complete now and in the time
of the plagues and in every other time and throughout all eternity?
Brethren, I am glad that that is so. I am just as glad as I can be. A sister
told me not long ago that before that time four years ago, she had just
been lamenting her condition and wondering how in the world the
time was ever going to come for the Lord’s returning, if He had to wait
for His people to get ready to meet Him. In her mind, she thought that
she had worked as hard as anybody in this world could, and yet she
was not making progress fast enough to bring the Lord in any kind of
reasonable time at all. She could not at all understand how the Lord
was going to come.

She was bothered about it, but when the folks came home from
Minneapolis and told her, “Why the Lord’s righteousness is a gift; we
can have the righteousness of Christ as a gift, and we can have it now.”
“Oh,” said she, “That made me glad; that brought light, for then I could
see how the Lord could come pretty soon. When He Himself gives us
the garment, the clothing, the character, that fits us for the judgment
and for the time of trouble, I could then see how he could come just
as soon as He wanted to.” “And,” said she, “it made me glad, and I have
been glad ever since.” Brethren I am glad of it too, and all the time.

Now that line of reasoning makes sense even today. You know,
we have all been in that same place. We have all sat down and cried be-
cause we could not do well enough to satisfy our own estimate of right
doing; and as we were expecting the Lord to come soon, we dreaded
the news that it was so near; for how in the world were we going to be
ready? Thank the Lord He can get us ready. [Congregation: “Amen.”]
He provides the wedding garment. The master of the wedding feast
always provided the wedding garment. He is the Master of the wedding
supper now, and He is going to come pretty soon, and He says, “Here
is the clothing that will fit you to stand in that place.” Now there will be
some folks that cannot attend that feast, because they have not on the
wedding garment, but the Lord offers it as a free gift to all. Now for the
man who does not take it, who is to blame?

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 Consider and Believe

Another thing. Do you believe now? Let us have that settled

before we go any further. I want to know how many people in this
house actually believe, right down honestly in their hearts, that God
is able to say what He means when He says it? [Congregation: “Yes.”]
Then when you and I read what He says, just as He says it in the Bible,
I want to know whether it is any use for you and me to go over to some
other part of the Bible and hunt up some other text to see whether that
does not contradict this? Is the Lord able to tell His own story in His
own way without contradicting Himself? [Congregation: “Yes.”] We
have been at that long enough.

So, I do not propose to harmonize any texts of Scripture in

all the work that I shall have to do here in this institute. I think the
Lord has everything straight, exactly as it is. I do not think He needs
any of my help. I think rather that I need His help to see that there is
no contradiction at all. And I think that if there appears to me to be a
contradiction, then I need more of His Spirit to see that there is none.
And instead of trying to harmonize the supposed contradiction, I am
going to say that the Lord knows all about that, and I am going to wait
until He gives me breadth of mind enough to see that there is no con-
tradiction at all.

So, what I want here to decide now and forever is that when
you read anything in the Bible, it means exactly what it says, and you
need not hunt up anything in the Bible to see whether it tells the other
side of it. There is no other side. It is all one. Well then, how are you
going to explain everything in the Bible when people ask you? There is
the difficulty. Men go out preaching the gospel and they think if they
cannot explain everything that people ask them, it is going to be a great
discredit to their ministry. No sir. It will be well for you to acknowledge
that there are some things even in the Bible that you have not grasped
fully yet.

What the Lord asks of you and me is stated in 2 Timothy 2:7,

and it is the key of all Bible study. It is God’s directions for Bible study.
It says; “Consider what I say, and the Lord will give you understanding
in all things.” The only thing He asks of you and me is to consider what

94
He says, and if we have to consider it for ten, fifteen, or twenty years
to find out what it means, we will find that it was worth twenty years
of waiting. We need not be disappointed at all. Bear in mind that the
longer you have to consider a text to find out what is in it, the more it
will be worth when you get it. So there is no place for discouragement
ever. Therefore, if I cannot measure the depths of it, I am going to be
glad that it is so deep that when I do get it, I shall rejoice as long as I
live.

All we have to do in these lessons is to consider what He says,

and depend upon Him to give us the understanding of it. That is all.
That is all I can do, and everyone that will do that will get more out of
it than the one who does not consider what He says. Then “their righ-
teousness is of Me, says the Lord” (Isaiah 54:17). That is what He says,
isn’t it? [Congregation. “Yes.”] It is a gift of righteousness; it is a gift;
is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Now how do we receive a gift? “The
righteousness is of Me,” He gives it. A free gift. How do we get it? [Con-
gregation: “By faith.”] By faith. By faith. Let us bear in mind also the
definition which we have studied of what faith is. Not the satanic belief
– that is not faith at all. Instead, we saw that true faith is a submission
of the will to God, a yielding of the heart to Him and having the affec-
tions fixed upon Him—there is faith. That is God’s idea of faith. And
when we read of faith and get His word of belief which He has spoken
in His word—that is what He means.

Receive the Gift Freely by Faith

Mark this: It is received by faith. It is known by faith. But let

us read the text and see that it is so. We will read from Rom. 1:17 – the
16th verse is talking about the gospel. “For therein is the righteousness
. . . revealed from faith to faith.” What alone can obtain it then? [Con-
gregation: “Faith.”] Not from faith to works, but from faith to faith. But
what is faith? Submission of the will to Him; yielding of the heart to
Him and having the affections fixed upon Him. That is the faith that
surrenders self and takes what God says as a fact. In other words, faith
is simply this: that when God says a thing and you and I read it, we say,
“that is so.” That is faith.

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 Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Rom.
10:17. What is the source of faith then? [Congregation: “The Word of
God.”] How does faith come to us? [Congregation: “By hearing the
Word of God.”] Faith comes to us by the Word of God. That is the
source, the fountain of faith. Then when that Word is read, you yield
to that and say, “That is so.” I take that as it says; with no attempt to ex-
plain it, even to myself. I take it as God says it and I receive it just as He
says it. I rest upon it just as He says it and He gives me understanding
of it. Then I want to know whether I will receive in that Word and from
that Word, just what He has in it to give to me? Assuredly. That also
precludes getting any thread of human invention into it.

Then it is of faith. It comes by faith. We receive it that way.

Then don’t you see that with the man who does not understand and
then begins to question righteousness by faith alone, the trouble is that
his soul is not submitted to God, his heart is not yielded to God, and
his affections are not fixed upon Him? That is the difficulty. All the
trouble that ever comes to anybody in this world over justification by
faith is in the heart. It is in the refusal to submit to God. That is the
carnal mind. As we read the other night, the carnal mind cannot com-
prehend it and does not know it.

Now let us turn to the third chapter of Romans, and begin

reading with the 20th verse. “Therefore, by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” Justified is made righteous, so
whenever we read it here, you can just put the words, “made righteous,”
there instead, and you have the same thing always. “For by the law is
the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the
law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even
the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe,” and then do their best? [Congregation:
“No sir, ‘for there is no difference.’”] Unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God.

Now the verse I am after is this: “Being justified” (made righ-

teous) how? [Congregation: “Freely.”] “Being made righteous freely.”
Is it so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Is it so? [Congregation: “Amen.”] Let
us thank the Lord that it is so. Let us take it right now. [Congregation:
“Amen.”] “Being made righteous freely by His grace.” Now let us stop
here with that word “grace” and turn over to Rom. 11:6, where we read
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as follows, “And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise
grace is no more grace.” And when grace is no more grace what are the
people in this world going to do? When the grace of God is gone what
are we going to do? [Voice: “We would be gone too.”] Yes. Brethren, let
us submit. Let us submit. “But if it be of works, then it is no more grace;
otherwise work is no more work.” A man’s works are all gone if there
are no more works. Don’t you see then, what becomes of a man who
takes that course?

Now Romans 3:24: “Being justified freely by His grace through

the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness.”
Whose righteousness? [Congregation: “God’s.”] God has set forth who
to declare it? [Congregation: “Christ.”] Yes. “For the remission of sins
that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this
time.” When is that? [Congregation: “Now.”] Is that right now, just now,
tonight? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Just now, four minutes of nine o’clock?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] His righteousness? [Congregation: “Yes.”] To
you? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Thank the Lord.

“For the remission of sins that are past, through the forbear-
ance of God, to declare I say at this time” (vs. 25-26). Will you go out
of this house realizing that? I want to ask, if any man goes out of this
house without that, what in the world is the matter? [Voice: “Unbe-
lief.”] Who is to blame? [Voice: “The man himself.”] Then let us not do
it. The Lord wants us to receive the latter rain. Shall we ask for it, and
then when it comes, not take it as He gives it, because it does not come
quite as we thought it would come? It is none of your business how it
comes. It is for Him to give it, and for us to have discernment to see
that it is He who gives it.

“To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He might

be just” (v. 26). That He might be righteous. Oh, He is all right then; it
is not going to tangle Him; it is not going to disgrace Him. “That He
might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” And
when God justifies, I want to know what business in the world any-
body has to condemn? He does it and He is able to do it. He has fixed
the thing so He can do it and yet be just all the time. He can be just in
the doing of it. Well then let us let Him have His own way. The law of
God is satisfied. Let us be delighted. [Congregation: “Amen.”] I can tell
you when I found out that in the doing of this, the Lord was justified
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and that the law of God was satisfied, I was delighted. “Where is boast-
ing then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of
faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified [made righteous]
by faith without the deeds of the law.”

Is that a right conclusion? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Now is it?

[Congregation: “Yes.”] Who drew it? Whose conclusion is it? [Con-
gregation: “God’s.”] Let us let Him have His own way. Is He not able
to argue straight? “What shall we say then that Abraham our father,
as pertaining to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham were justified by
works, he has whereof to glory, but not before God” (Romans 4:1-2).
What good is a man’s glorying then if he cannot glory before God? We
want something to glory in, when the heavens split open and the face
of God shines into the hearts of men. We want something that we can
glory in just then. I tell you God gives us something that we can do it
with too, and that is His own righteousness.

“For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God and it

was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3). What does that
say? Abraham believed God and “it,” it, what? [Congregation: “Faith.”]
It, what? [Congregation: “Believed God.”] His believing God--what
did that amount to? [Congregation: “Righteousness.”] Who counted it
to him for righteousness? [Congregation: “God.”] Well, did God make
a mistake? [Congregation: “No.”] Whether we understand it or not, the
Lord did it, and He did right in doing it. He was perfectly just. He said
so. We were not in the doing of it; we did not have the plan to lay. We
could not have done it if we had tried anyway. Let us let Him have His
own way, I say again brethren, and when we let Him have His own way
and we are in His own way, it will be all right, and we need not be a bit
afraid.

What was counted to Abraham for righteousness? He believed

God, and God said, “You are righteous, Abraham. “Now that is said
three times in that little short space. What was it that was counted to
him for righteousness? His believing God. It, i-t, it. “Now to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. But to him
that worketh not”--Is that what it says? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Did the
Lord say it that way? [Congregation: “Yes.”] “But believeth on Him that
justifies the ungodly.” But that is the Laodicean message again. We are
miserable and poor and blind and naked. That is the kind of people
that the Lord justifies. “His faith is counted to him for righteousness.”
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 The ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness! What is
counted to him? [Congregation: “His faith for righteousness.”] And
that is believing that God is justifying ungodly men? Will that bring
righteousness to a man? [Congregation: “Yes.”] To confess that he is
ungodly and then believe that God makes that kind of man righteous.
Yes, indeed. I cannot tell how; I cannot understand it. I know it is so,
and I am so glad that it is so, that I do not care whether I ever find out
how or not. The Lord wants us to have what He gives. Let us take it. But
do not forget what was counted to Abraham for righteousness, and “if
we be Christ’s,” then are we “Abraham’s seed.”

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 CHAPTER SEVEN
Receiving the Word as God Gives it

I received a letter a little while ago from Brother Starr in Aus-

tralia. I will read two or three sentences because they come in well just
at this place in our lessons: “Sister White says that we have been in the
time of the latter rain since the Minneapolis meeting.” That is just what
we have found in our own study of these lessons, is it not? Brethren,
how much longer is the Lord going to wait before we will receive it? He
has been trying these four years to have us receive the latter rain. How
much longer is He going to wait before we receive it? Now this subject
will join right on to Brother Prescott’s. His talk is simply the beginning
of mine, and what he called upon everyone here to do is what everyone
should have done four years ago.

And the fact of the matter is, something is going to be done.

Those who will seek the Lord and will receive His message in that way,
will get what He wants to give. Those who will not do that will be left
to themselves, and when that is done it will be forever. And that is the
fearfulness of the situation at this meeting; that is what lends to this
meeting its fearful character. The danger is that there will be some here
who have resisted this for four years or perhaps who have not resisted
it that long, but who now will fail to receive it as the Lord gives it and
will be passed by. A decision will be made by the Lord, by ourselves in
fact, at this meeting. On which side are you going to be found?

Here is another word that teaches the same point that we had
last night in our lesson, regarding receiving the Word of God just as it
is and just as He says it, with no question of our own. Brother Starr says
that he was talking with Sister White one day about the angels at Mt.
Sinai at the giving of the law, and he says this: “She saw that the angels,
ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, sur-
rounded the people of God as they assembled around the mountain,
and all above them, thus making a great living tabernacle from which
every evil angel was excluded. This was in order that, not one word that
was to come from the voice of Jesus should be altered in any mind or
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any suggestion of doubt or evil to a soul be made.”

Now that is what we want here. [Congregation: “Amen.”] What

we want right here is for each one to just pray for himself, and ask the
Lord to cover us with just such a canopy as that at this Institute. We
should all pray that when the words of the Lord are read, not one word
shall be altered in any mind from just what God speaks and that not
one suggestion of doubt or evil shall come to a single soul. We should
pray instead that each one of us may receive just what the Lord says in
His own way, as He says it and as he means it.

Then further from Brother Starr: “In a late testimony to an

individual here, Sister White was forbidden to send it to him in writing
but was told to read it to him personally, for the reason that evil angels
are at work substituting words for those that are written. Other words
are pronounced in his ears and he gets a meaning just opposite from
that designed of God.” Well if that man needs that, is he the only one
in the world that needs it? If Satan is working that way, is he going to
confine himself to Australia? Then don’t you and I need to have our
ears anointed as well as our eyes, that we may hear? And does not that
Word of Jesus, “Take heed how ye hear,” come to us also?

Saying “Amen” to God and His Word

Then another instance there: A brother had been carried away

by connection with secret societies and had gone through with them
until he was about ready to take the highest degree. A testimony came
for him. God presented his case to her as a man just upon the brink
of a precipice to whom it was dangerous even to call out. Sister White
asked the Lord what she could do for him and as she prayed, the angel
said, “Give him the password. Give him the password into the heavenly
society, ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’

“What is the password into the heavenly society? [Congrega-

tion: “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”] That is the only thing that you
and I have any business to know anything about. That is His message
to the world, “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”; that is the passport.
Now turn again to Romans 4th chapter, starting with the first verse.
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We want to read of the righteousness of God and while we read of this
righteousness of God, we want to receive it just as the Lord has spoken
it. Don’t forget now, we want that canopy of angels over us and around
us, that no word may be perverted to our understanding. We want to
receive it just as he gave it.

“What shall we say then that Abraham our forefather accord-

ing to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he
has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the
scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited (counted)
unto him for righteousness.” What was it that was counted unto Abra-
ham for righteousness? [Congregation: “He believed God.”] When
God said a thing, Abraham believed it. He said “that is so.” What was
it that the Lord said to him? Let us turn and read Gen. 15:4-6, because
that is important to us: “And behold, the word of the Lord came to him,
saying, This one shall not be your heir; but one who will come from
your own body shall be your heir. And he brought him forth abroad
and said, Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able
to number them: and he said unto him, so shall your seed be. And he
believed in the Lord and God counted it unto him (Abraham) for righ-
teousness.”

Now do you believe that Abraham became righteous in just

that way? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Honestly now, do you? [Congrega-
tion: “Yes sir.”] Do you know he did? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then He
brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven, and count the
stars if you are able to number them. And He said to him, so shall your
descendants be. Abraham said in essence, “Amen.” That is the Hebrew,
Abraham said, “Amen.” And the Lord said, “You are right.”

“Now do you know that it was as simple a transaction as that?

Was it just like calling you and me out of this tabernacle and the Lord
saying to us, See the stars? Tell the stars if thou be able to number them.
Yes, so shall such and such be. And we say, “Amen.” And He should say,
“You are righteous.” Suppose the Lord called you and me out tonight.
No, He can do it without calling us out. He called Abraham outdoors
to show him the stars, but He can show us sins without calling us out-
doors. Has He shown you a great many sins? Has He? [Congregation:
“Yes.”]

Now He says, “If you be able to number your sins, ‘they shall
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be white as snow.’ “ What do you say? [Congregation: “Amen.”] Then
what does the Lord say? [Congregation: “You are righteous.”] Are you?
[Voice: “Yes.”] Do people become righteous as easy as that? Is it as
simple a transaction as that? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Amen. Thank the
Lord! Now let us turn again to the 4th of Romans and get the particular
verse where this is told. Rom. 4:23, 24: “Now it was not written for his
sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall
be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the
dead.”

Some of the brethren were saying this morning in the social

meeting that last night they felt as though they would like to praise
the Lord out loud, but they thought they had better not. “Quench not
the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). If you want to praise the Lord for
anything, the Lord tells you to do it. We might as well start praising
Him right here and now. Now is as good a time as any other, for Sev-
enth-day Adventists to praise the Lord or to say, “Praise the Lord” in a
meeting. We might as well start that here as well as anywhere.

What the Lord said to Abraham, Abraham believed. And

when you and I believe what He says, we get the same results. It is not
some particular thing that the Lord says, that we must believe in order
to be righteous. Whatever He says, believe it, and then He says, “you
are right.” I would like to know whether it is not so, that when the Lord
says a thing He is right? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then when I say that is
so, am I not right? [Congregation: “Yes.”] What in the world hinders
me from being right? Can you tell?

I will say it again: When the Lord says a thing, is he right?

[Congregation: “Yes.”] He is right in saying it. Then when I say “that
is so”; when I say “Amen”; when I say “be it so”; when I say “yes, that
is so,” then am I not right? Yes. Am I not right just as certainly as He
is? Certainly. Can even He say I am wrong? [Congregation: “No.”] He
says a thing, and I say the same thing; can He say I am wrong? [Con-
gregation: “No.”] When you say the same thing, can He say that you
are wrong? [Congregation: “No.”] Well then, when we are in such a
situation that the Lord Himself cannot say that you and I are wrong,
I would like to know what in the world is the reason we are not right?
Believing God puts us in just that same situation, the same situation
that Abraham was in. I would like to know what can keep us out of
heaven then? What can keep us out of the kingdom of God then?
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 The only thing that can keep you and me out of the kingdom
of God is to tell the Lord that He lies, and if you and I will stop that
business we will get into heaven all right. That is just what people need
to do, to stop telling the Lord that He lies. “He that does not believe
God has made Him a liar” (1 John 5:10). But whoever would make
God a liar, is a liar himself and liars cannot get into the kingdom of
God. “Without are liars” and all those other people referred to in Rev.
21:8, 27, and 22:15.

Then the thing we want to do is to stop lying. Let us quit right

now. Stop lying. No matter what the Lord says, you say, “That is so.”
Don’t you see this is the whole story and the very idea that Brother
Haskell was trying hard to inculcate upon us here in our lessons, when
he taught that there is salvation in every line of the Scriptures? For God
says it, doesn’t He? Well, when God says it, and we say it, then we are
righteous, that is the end of it. God said that to Abraham and Abraham
said, “Amen, that is so, I take that.” So this shows that there is salvation
in every line of the Scriptures, in everything God says.

God Justifies the Ungodly

Romans 4 tells us more about what Abraham said, or rather

what he thought. Rom. 4:20-22: “He staggered not at the promise of
God through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving glory to God:
and being fully persuaded that, what He had promised He was able
to perform. And therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness.”
Now as I read last night without reference to the third chapter of Ro-
mans, that Christ was set forth to be a propitiation for sin that is past.
“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His
blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God: To declare, I say, at this time
His righteousness; that He might be just and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus.”

The thought is that God is righteous in the doing of it. His

sacrifice is sufficient and He has met every demand. He is perfectly
able then, to justify the believer in Jesus, is He not? He is perfectly able

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to make the man righteous who believes in Jesus. He has promised to
do that for every one who will believe in Jesus: Well, do you believe
He is able to perform what He has promised? Has He not promised to
do that? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Do you believe He is able to perform
what He has promised? [Congregation: “Amen.”] Is He? [Congrega-
tion: “Yes.”] Amen. Therefore, it is imputed to you for righteousness.
[Congregation: “Thank the Lord.” That is all the story. [Congregation:
“Praise the Lord.”]

The story is simple enough, the mischief of it is that we allow

so much of Satan’s devices to get in to mystify it. That is the mischief
of it. God does not want that. He wants it to be just as simple as He has
told it, and He has told it so simply that a little child can understand it
and receive it. You who do not receive it as a little child, cannot receive
it at all. So I say again, that it is no difference what God says or when
He says it. Whatever He says, we like Abraham are to say; “Amen. Lord,
I believe that. That is so.”

Then He says you are right. And you are right, too. Let us read
on now, in Romans 4:3-5: “For what does the scripture say? Abraham
believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to
him that works, the reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt. But to
him that does not work but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.” Believes on Him that justifies
who? [Congregation: “The ungodly.”] Who is it, in this world, that the
Lord justifies? [Congregation: “The ungodly.”] The ungodly. I am glad
of it, for that assures me everlasting salvation.

If it were otherwise there would be no hope for me. If God

justified people who were only half saints that would leave me out. If
He justified people who had only one good thing, that would leave me
out. If He justified people who had only a little good about them, that
would leave me out. But thank the Lord, He is so good and He loves me
so much. Thank the Lord He has such wondrous power and that the
divine power of His righteousness is so great.

It is so great that when He pronounces that word upon such a

corrupt sinner as I am, it makes me through and through righteous in
the sight of God. [Congregation: “Amen.”] That is the worth of God’s
word “righteousness.” And because He is so good, because there is
such divine power in His righteousness and because He justifies the
105
ungodly, therefore I have the perfect security of His everlasting salva-
tion. Then what in the world is going to keep me from being glad? Can
you imagine anything that is going to keep me from being glad? Can
you imagine anything that is going to keep you from being glad? It is
not enough for me to be glad. I want you to be glad and I can attend
only to my part of it. [Voice: “I am glad.”] Amen.

The Blessedness of Salvation

“To him that does not work.” Yes, if it required works, I could
not do enough. If there was anything at all required it would leave me
out. But oh, as we read the other night, you have “sold yourself for
nothing” and “you are redeemed without money.” You are redeemed
without money but not without a price. But lo, He has paid the price.
And the blessing of it is that He was rich enough to pay the price, and
the other blessing is He was good enough to spend all His riches in
paying the price that He might have me. He can have me. I have heard
brethren say, “I thank the Lord I have confidence in him.” I thank the
Lord He has confidence in me.

I think it is little enough for a man for whom the Lord does
that much to have confidence in the Lord. But to think that the Lord
would make such a wondrous investment in me, having the confidence
that it would be worth it—His confidence in me I cannot grasp. That
is too wonderful for me. And I am thankful that the Lord had that
much confidence in me to risk all of that. For that reason I am so glad I
don’t know what else to do. Brethren, the Lord is good. [Congregation:
“Amen.”] Then let us trust Him.

Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man”?

Well, I should say so. That is a sure thing. The blessedness of the man
“to whom God imputes righteousness without works.” Brethren, do
you know the blessedness of that man? Or are there some in this house
who only know the futility of the man who tries to get it by his own
works? There is no blessedness in that approach. The Bible does not
describe any blessedness with that kind of religion. That approach is
a curse and leads to only sorrowful, guilt ridden bondage, and you

106
know it. But God describes the blessedness of the man to whom God
imputes righteousness without works saying, “O the blessedness of the
man.” That is the way David said it in his own language, but in ours it
is translated simply “Blessed is the man.” O the blessedness of the man
whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

There is a blessedness to that man; I tell you there is. O the

blessedness of the man to whom He will not impute sin. To whom
the Lord will not impute sin, because that man has received the gift of
Jesus Christ, and all that God has given in Him. When He looks at that
man, He sees Jesus Christ and He does not impute sin to that man at
all. Oh, the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin! “Does this blessedness come upon the circumcision only, or upon
the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abra-
ham for righteousness.”

Three times, you see, there inside of nine verses, three times
the Lord has said it over; Faith counts for righteousness. Look at it.
“Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteous-
ness”; “To him that believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness.” “We say that faith was reckoned to Abra-
ham for righteousness.” Brethren, let us do like Abraham did; let us say
“Amen.” [Congregation: “Amen.”] Counting that what God has prom-
ised He is able to perform. [Congregation: “Amen.”] And then thank
the Lord that He imputes to us righteousness and makes us free.

Receiving the Sign of Circumcision

“How was it then reckoned? When Abraham was in circumci-

sion or in uncircumcision?” Did he have to go and circumcise himself
and all his house before he could be righteous? [Congregation: “No,
sir.”] “When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in cir-
cumcision but in uncircumcision.” When he was a Gentile. Is that so?
[Congregation: “Yes sir.”] Before he was circumcised? “And he received
the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness” that he had?
[Congregation: “Righteousness of the faith which he had.”]

Doesn’t it say, he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of

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the righteousness which he had? [Congregation: “No. ‘A seal of the
righteousness of the faith which he had.’”] Yes sir. Yes sir. “He received
the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which
he had.” [Congregation: “Amen!”] A seal of the righteousness of the
faith which he had, not the righteousness that he had, because the righ-
teousness that he had, came by the faith that he had.

“And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righ-

teousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he
might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circum-
cised.” Is that you? Father of all them that believe God. [Congregation:
“Amen.”] All them that believe. Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”]
That righteousness might be imputed unto them also. He is the father
of all them that believe for what? “That righteousness might be imput-
ed unto them also.” Come along then. “Father of all them that believe.”
No wonder he could not count them.

Only the mind of God could count the seed of Abraham. They
are indeed as numberless as the stars, but lo, of the stars it is said, “He
calleth them all by their names.” He is able to number us also and he
knows us by name, and the blessing of it is, he is going to give us a new
name. I tell you brothers, the Lord loves us. Indeed He does. “For the
promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham,
or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] “For if they which are of the law be
heirs then faith is made void and the promise made of none effect:
because the law works wrath.” Does it? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Does it
now? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then how much righteousness is any man
going to get out of the law? [Congregation: “None.”] That is not what
the law is for; “the law works wrath.”

“For where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore, it

is of faith that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be
sure.” Oh! The Lord wants His promise to be sure to us, does He? And
in order that it might be sure to us, where did He put it? Therefore, it is
of faith that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure.”
Look now and think of that carefully. I will say it slowly. “Therefore, it
is of faith that it might be by grace.

The word “that” is what I am after. What does it mean? In or-

der that, just this way. “That it might be by grace.” Then it is of grace, is
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it? [Congregation: “Yes.”] It is of faith, that it might be by grace, what
for? “That it might be sure.” Then he who receives anything from God
by faith, he is the man that is sure of that thing, isn’t he? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] And he who thinks of getting anything from God in any other
way than by faith, never can be sure that he has it, because in fact he
does not have it at all. Do you see that? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Let us
act that way.

“Therefore, it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end

the promise might be sure to all.” Good. [Congregation: “Amen.”] To
all. To all. “To the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not
to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of
Abraham; who is the Father of us all (as it is written, I have made thee
a father of many nations), before Him whom he believed, even God,
who quickens the dead, and calls things that are not as though they
were.” What does he do? [Congregation: “Quickens.”] What does He
do? [Congregation: “Makes alive.”]

He gives life unto the dead. “Calling those things that are not
as though they were.” When He calls a thing that is not as though it
were, then is it? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Did He not do that when He
made the worlds? There were no worlds and then He called them and
what happened? [Congregation: “They were.”] There was no light; He
called the light; “there was light.”

In me is no righteousness; here is all ungodliness; here is all

uncleanness. God has set forth that same One who declared the word
and the worlds came and who declared the word “light,” and light
came. He has set forth that same One to declare righteousness in place
of this body of sin. [Congregation: “Praise the Lord.”] In this place, this
body, this character of sin, He calls that which is not as though it were,
and thank the Lord, it is. [Congregation: “Amen.”]

In this place which is all uncleanness he has set forth that

blessed One to declare holiness and He calls this thing which is not as
though it were, and thanks be to His almighty power, it is. [Congre-
gation: “Amen.”] And I am glad of it. “He calls those things which are
not as though they were.” A sinner is not righteous; the ungodly are
ungodly; but God calls that which is not, as though it were and it is.
[Congregation: “Amen.”] It is.

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 “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become
the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so
shall your seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his
own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither
yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not stagger at the promise of
God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and
being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also
to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him
but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that
raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our
offenses and was raised again for our justification.” He was raised that
we might be justified; raised for our justification. I am going to let Him
accomplish what He was raised from the dead for. That is settled. He
knows how to do it, and He can do it, and I am going to let Him.

The Blessing of Abraham

Now look at the fifth chapter of Romans: “Therefore being jus-

tified by faith.” What do you say? [Congregation: “Amen.”] Therefore,
being made righteous, being justified by faith, “we have peace with
God.” And I know it, don’t you? We have peace with God. He says so.
Then it is so even though it were not so. Then it is so. Even though it
were not so, it is so after he calls those things that are not as though
they were. We cannot understand it, but we can know it. I know it, and
that is all I care to do.

“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God

through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith
into this grace.” How did we get into this grace? By faith. We have it,
thank the Lord. “Wherein we stand.” Do we stand there indeed? [Con-
gregation: “Yes.”] If He says so it is so, isn’t it? He says so, and it is so. He
says we stand there and we do, thank the Lord. “Wherein we stand, and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Don’t we? He says we rejoice, and
we do. Because when He says we do, He is right, and we say, “Amen,”
and then we are right. “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also.” Tribulations will come along as easy as can be, but they will not

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amount to anything against us. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be
revealed”—not to us only but also “in us,” which shall be a part of us.
That is how we shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of our Father.

Well, that is the righteousness of God and that is how Abra-

ham received it. What is the blessing of Abraham then? What is it?
[Congregation: “Righteousness by faith.”] How did he get it? [Congre-
gation: “By faith.”] The blessing of Abraham is not received except by
that man who has righteousness by faith. Is that so? [Congregation:
“Yes sir.”]

Now let’s look at the text that Brother Prescott just read. I do
not care if he read it also. It comes into my lesson as well as his and it
is all one lesson anyway. It is Galatians 3:13,14: “Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law.” Has He? If He says He has, then He has.
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree, that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ.”

Why did Christ become a curse on the tree? That the blessing
of Abraham might come on you and me. Why did He redeem us from
the curse of the law? That the blessing of Abraham might come on you
and me. What is the blessing of Abraham? [Congregation: “Righteous-
ness by faith.”] Christ died that you and I might be made righteous by
faith. Brethren, isn’t it awful when a man will rob Christ of the very
thing for which He died and want righteousness in some other way?
Isn’t it awful?

Brethren, let us believe in Jesus Christ. “That the blessing of

Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.” Now then
we are redeemed from the curse of the law; Christ is made a curse for
us, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us. And what does
that come upon us for? “That we might receive the promise of the Spir-
it through faith.”

Then when we as a people, we as a body, we as a church, have

received the blessing of Abraham, what then? [Congregation: “The
latter rain.”] The outpouring of the Spirit. It is so with the individu-
al. When the individual believes in Jesus Christ and obtains the righ-

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teousness which is by faith, then the Holy Spirit which is the circum-
cision of the heart is received by Him. And when the whole people as
a church receive the righteousness of faith, the blessing of Abraham,
then what is to hinder the church from receiving the Spirit of God?
[Congregation: “Nothing.”]

That is where we are. What is to hinder then, the outpouring

of the Holy Spirit? What holds back the outpouring of the Holy Ghost?
[Voice: “Unbelief.”] Our lack of the righteousness of God, which is by
faith, that is what holds it back. When that is received, it is given in
order that we may receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Then
let us be sure we have the blessing of Abraham and then ask and we
shall receive.

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113
 CHAPTER EIGHT
The Blessing of Abraham

The last verse that we had before us in the previous lesson was
in Galatians 3:13, 14. Now whether that be the promise of the Spirit to
the individual in his own individual experience, or the promise of the
Spirit in its outpouring on the whole church, it is all the same. Nobody
can have it without having the blessing of Abraham first. Whoever has
not the blessing of Abraham cannot have the Holy Spirit. We know this
because we read in Romans 4 that, “He received the sign of circum-
cision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being
uncircumcised.” You will find what circumcision really is by turning
to Deuteronomy 30:6: “And the Lord your God will circumcise your
heart, and the heart of your seed to love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul that you mayest live.”

Now, put with that Romans 5:5. After saying that we are justi-
fied by faith and that “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God”, he then says in
verse 5: “And hope does not make us ashamed; because the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto
us.” Now unto us, the Holy Ghost sheds abroad in the heart the love
of God; but here He says, I “will circumcise your heart . . . to love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.” The only
way that we can love the Lord with all the heart and with all the soul,
is by the love of God implanted in the heart and in the soul, converting
the person to God. And “love is the fulfilling of the law.”

To “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind,” and “with all your strength” is the
first of all the commandments: “And the second is like it, You shall love
your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the
law and the prophets.” Circumcision of the heart is that condition of
the heart by which we will “love the Lord” our God, “with all the heart
and with all the soul.” Then you see that that which this circumcision
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in the flesh was to Abraham was simply a sign.

It was a token that they could see in the time when God was
teaching them by object lessons. A token which they could see, signi-
fying that which they could not see. And therefore, circumcision in
the flesh was merely the sign, “a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had,” before he was circumcised. It was simply the outward
sign of the work of the Holy Spirit which circumcised the heart. The
Holy Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, but no man can
receive the promise of the Spirit who has not the blessing of Abra-
ham—the righteousness of God, which is by faith.

Then the man who knows that he believes God can ask with
perfect confidence for the Holy Spirit. Now the man who thinks that
he believes God and a part of the time he does, but a part of the time
he does not; the man who a part of the time thinks he does; a part of
the time he does not know whether he does or not – that man cannot
ask with confidence for the Holy Spirit. That is not believing God at all,
but the Lord wants you and me to know that we believe God. He wants
us to know that and to have it as firmly settled and fixed as the fact that
we live and breathe.

Then, I say that the man who knows that he believes God can
ask with perfect confidence for the Spirit of God, and receive it by faith,
for “if ye ask, ye shall receive.” He said so. But we must ask according
to His will. But it is not according to His will to give the Holy Spirit to
anybody who has not the blessing of Abraham, and just as with the
individual, so with the church. When the people of God reach that
place where they know that they believe God, they can ask with perfect
confidence for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and wait in perfect
confidence and faith that they shall receive it and they will. That is a
fact.

Now let us study a little further tonight, regarding how we may

know that the blessing of Abraham is our own and how we may know
that with perfect confidence we may ask the Lord to give us His Holy
Spirit and then just simply wait His own good time and we receive it
according to His own wish—we have not anxiety about whether we are
going to receive it or not. We want to learn how all that anxiety as to
whether we can receive the Holy Spirit or not can be taken away from
us. Then we can present our petitions to the Lord in faith, expecting to
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receive it, expecting just that and expecting nothing else. Then we will
simply wait for Him to give it in His own good time, while we still ask
and still seek Him that it may be so.

I tell you, brethren, when we get into that place it will not be
difficult for us all to be “with one accord in one place.” Now at this
meeting, when we reach that condition—that place where we know
that we believe God and know that we may ask with perfect confidence
for the Holy Spirit, it will be an easy thing for every one of us (and it
will be so too) to be with one accord in one place, every time there is
a meeting. The fact of the matter is, each one will be afraid to be away,
because if he should be away from any one of these meetings and the
promise of the Holy Spirit be fulfilled, he would miss it. Everyone will
be here waiting and watching for the Lord to do what He says, just
when He gets ready. Don’t you see how that will bring all with accord
into one place? It will do it.

Of course, if the work of the Lord should call us away from

some meeting in the order of our work and the order of the Lord, and
the Holy Spirit should be poured out while we were away, we would get
it anyhow, wherever we were. But it will not be so with those who are
away from the meeting from their own inclinations. I am afraid to be
away from any of our meetings here. I am afraid to be away from these
morning meetings. For I can’t tell at what meeting the Spirit may be
poured upon us. I cannot risk being absent.

Now let us take up the Scriptures and read just how the Lord
has led us and will lead every one right through to that place tonight,
if you will go. If you will start where I begin to read, the Lord will lead
you and me straight through. Let us not question how that can be.
When the Lord speaks, that is the end of the whole story, no difference
what He says; that is the end of it, and we say “Lord, that’s so.” Now, let
us go together tonight and we will arrive at that place where every one
of us can know that we believe God and that we have the blessing of
Abraham and then we can ask God for His Spirit in perfect confidence
and wait to receive it, as He gives it in His own good time.

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 Blessed, Chosen, Predestined, and Accepted

Let us see what the Lord has done and how He works and how
He brings us up to that place. Let us begin where He began. We will
read first from Eph. 1:3-6. That takes us to the point where God be-
gan concerning us, and that will be as far back as we need to go. The
third verse: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ.” What is it He “hath” done? [Congregation: “Blessed us.”]. Is
it so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Has done it? [Congregation: “Yes.”] He
has blessed us with how many blessings? [Congregation: “All spiritual
blessings.”] All the blessings He has? He has given us all? [Congrega-
tion: “Yes.”] How? [Congregation: “In Christ.”] In Christ.

Then in giving Christ, what did God give? [Congregation: “All

spiritual blessings.”] All the spiritual blessings that He had. Well then,
when you and I believe in Jesus Christ, are we not blessed? Have not
we all the blessing that the Lord has? Then what is going to bother
us? A person that is blessed like that, is he going to be anything else
than happy? [Congregation: “No.”] Can he have the blues? [Congrega-
tion: “No.”] Can he get into the sulks because things don’t go just right?
[Congregation: “No.”] They are going just right any way. However
things go, they can’t take his blessings away. “All things work together
for good to them that love God.”

But the fourth verse is the one particularly that I want to read:
“According as He has chosen us.” Will choose us? [Congregation: “Has
chosen us.”] Has He? [Congregation: “Yes.”] When did He do it? [Con-
gregation: “’Before the foundation of the world.’”] Thank the Lord!
“Before the foundation of the world” He chose you and me. [Congre-
gation: “Praise the Lord!”] Now, will you say “amen” to that every time?
[Congregation: “Amen!”] I do not mean just now. Will you say it all
the time? [Congregation: “Yes.”] How long is that Scripture going to
remain there? [Congregation: “Forever.”] Then how long is it going to
be true that “he has chosen you before the foundation of the world?”
[Congregation: “Always.”]

Then how long are you going to be bothered to know whether

you are the Lord’s or not? Hasn’t He chosen you? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

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What did He do it for? Because He wanted us? Did He? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] He chose me because He wanted me and He shall have me. I am
not going to rob Him and disappoint His choice. He has chosen us,
hasn’t He? [Congregation: “Yes.”] “Before the foundation of the world.”
Now the rest of that verse: “That we should be holy and without blame
before Him in love.” His blessed purpose is that He wants us to “be holy
and without blame before him in love.” Then we can let Him have His
own way, because it is our everlasting salvation to let Him do it.

The next verse: “Having predestinated”— appointed the des-

tiny that He wants us to reach, long before hand. The destiny that
God fixes for man is worth having. “Having predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will.” Why did He do it then? Not because we were so
good, but because He is so good; not because we were so well pleasing
to Him, but because of the good pleasure of His own will. It was just
Himself to do it. That’s why He did it. Verse 6: “To the praise of the glo-
ry of His grace wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved.” Now
what do you say to that? [Congregation: “Amen.”] When did He do
that? [Congregation: “Before the foundation of the world.”] Precisely.

“Before the foundation of the world.” That answers all this idea
about whether we can do anything in order to be justified or not. He
did it all before we had any chance to do anything—long before we
were born—long before the world was made. Don’t you see that the
Lord is the one that does things in order that we may be saved and that
we may have Him? Now see what He has done:

1. “He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings” in Christ.

2. “He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.”

3. “He has predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus

Christ.”

4. And “He has made us accepted in the beloved.”

Well, I am glad of it. I know that it is so. [Congregation:

“Amen.”] Don’t you? [Congregation: “Yes.”] For He says so. He says so.
Here then are four things that we can be everlastingly sure of.

A word further about those blessings the Lord hath given us.
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We have all the blessings that God has, when we believe Jesus Christ.
Then they are our own. We don’t need to be so very particular about
praying for blessings. Don’t you think it would be better to spend our
time in thanking Him for the blessings that we have, than in asking
Him for more blessings? How does that look? Which do you think
looks the better, to thank the Lord for the blessings He has already
given, or to ask Him to give us some, when He hasn’t any more to give?
Now which is better? [Congregation: “To thank Him.”]

He hath given us all the blessings He has in Christ. Christ says,

“I am with you.” Brethren, let us feed on the blessings. We have them
and they are our own. Then we can be sure all the time that we have all
spiritual blessings. We can be sure all the time that He has chosen us.
He says He has. We can be sure all the time that He has predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. We can be sure all the time that He
has made us accepted in the Beloved. We can be sure of all these things,
for God says so and it is so. Then isn’t that a continual feast itself?

God’s Blessings are Given to All Mankind

Now He has done all that and has done it freely. For how many
people did He do this? [Congregation: “All.”] Every soul? [Congrega-
tion: “Yes, sir.”] He gave all the blessings He has to every soul in this
world. He chose every soul in the world and He chose Him in Christ
before the foundation of the world. He has predestinated him (every
soul) unto the adoption of children and made him accepted in the Be-
loved, did He not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Of course He did. We will
read other verses on that presently.

The thought I am after just now is that no one can have these
things and know they are his without his own consent. The Lord will
not force any of these things upon any man, even though He has given
them already, will He? [Congregation: “No.”] This involves coopera-
tion, you see. God pours out everything in one wondrous gift, but if
a man will not have it, the Lord will not compel him to have a bit of
it. Every man that will take it receives it all as his own. There is where
the cooperation comes in. The Lord has to have our cooperation in all

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things.

Now let us turn to Titus 2:14 – speaking of the Lord, it says,

“Who gave Himself for us.” That is the past tense too, is it not? That is
done. He did give Himself for how many people? [Congregation: “All.”]
How many people on the earth can read that text and say, “that means
me”? Every soul on the earth. Wherever we go then on this earth and
find a man, we can read to him that “Christ gave Himself for you,” can
we not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] He gave Himself for you, then. That is
the price that Peter refers to in 1 Pet. 1:18-20: “Forasmuch as you know
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,
from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers:
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of
the world.”

Now we want each individual to know where he stands. “He

gave himself for me.” That is stated in Gal. 2:20: “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.” How many people in the world can read that and
say that means me? [Congregation: “Every one.”] “Loved me and gave
Himself for me. That was the price that was paid. Then He bought me,
did He? [Congregation: “Yes.”] He bought you? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Whether you or I let Him have us, that is not the question
just now. What has He done? What did He do? [Congregation: “Paid
the price.”] Before the foundation of the world He bought me, did He
not? And you? Then whose are we? [Congregation: “The Lord’s.”] Well
then, is there any prospect of getting into doubt as to whether you are
the Lord’s? How is it possible for a man who wants to be the Lord’s and
has confessed his sins to get into doubt as to whether he is the Lord’s
or not? It is only by going back on the word of God altogether and not
believing it at all and saying the Lord has lied. Is not that the only way
he can do it? “He that does not believe God has made him a liar.”

Then the only way a man can doubt as to whether he is the

Lord’s or not is by going back on the word of God and saying that the
Lord lies. That is the only way he can do it. Because for a man to doubt
is to do that. He may not do that in so many words, but when he gets
into doubt as to whether he is the Lord’s, that is what he has done. He
has allowed unbelief to overthrow him and Satan to get the advantage
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and sweep everything away. That is so. But still though, the Lord has
bought us, He will not take what He has bought without our permis-
sion.

There is a line which God has set as fixing the freedom of every
man, and He Himself will never go over that line, even a hair’s breadth,
without our permission. He respects the freedom and dignity which he
has given to intelligent creatures, whether man or angel. He respects
it and He Himself will not transgress the limit. He will not go over the
limits without the permission of that person. But when the permission
is given, then He will come for all that He is. Our permission opens the
flood gates and the Lord flows in. That is so.

Knowing that You Belong to the Lord

Well then, He has bought you, hasn’t He? [Congregation:

“Yes.”] Do you want to be the Lord’s [Congregation: “Yes.”] Now
friends, let us make this a real, practical, tangible thing. He has bought
us, has He not? He has paid the price for us. We are His by His will.
Now then, when our will is there, whose are we then? [Congregation:
“The Lord’s.”] He has shown His will on that subject by paying the
price, has He not? And when we make known our will on the subject
by saying, “Lord, that is my choice too; that is the way my will goes too,
then I want to know how in the universe anything is going to keep us
from being His?

Then can you know that you are the Lord’s? [Congregation:
“Yes, sir.”] Can you now? [Congregation: “Yes, sir.”] Well, suppose you
get up in the morning with a headache and your digestion has not
worked very well during the night and you feel rather bad all over and
don’t feel just right. How do you know you are the Lord’s? [Congrega-
tion: “Because He says so.”] But suppose you get up in the morning and
feel bright and hilarious and feel pretty good generally. How do you
know you are the Lord’s? [Congregation: “Because He says so.”]

Sometimes people say when we ask them, “Have your sins

been forgiven?” “Yes, I was convinced that they were for a while.”
“What convinced you?” “I felt as though they were forgiven.” They did
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not know anything about it. They did not, in that, have a particle of ev-
idence that their sins were forgiven. Why, brethren, the only evidence
that we can have that these things are so is that God says so. That is the
evidence. Don’t look to feelings. Feelings are as variable as the wind.
You know that is so. Never pay a particle of attention to them. It is
none of your business how you feel. When God says so, it is so, wheth-
er I feel so or not. I will give that illustration again. I have given it be-
fore but it emphasizes this point, that feelings have nothing to do with
facts. Two times two is four, is it not? You know that is so, but there are
some people in the world who do not know that two times two is four.
But suppose you should tell someone, and he should believe it, how
do you think he would feel? Do you suppose he would feel as though
he had been picked up and whirled in a sort of half somersault and set
down in a new place? No. What in the world has feeling got to do with
that? Then what does he care how he feels?

Now that is not saying that there will be no experience as the

fruit of this, but it is saying that if you look for feelings as an evidence,
you will never find the evidence. But, on the other hand, if you look to
the word of God for the evidence, then you will get the evidence which
God gives in His word. You will get His own divine power in that word,
effectually working in the man who believes. Well then, the Lord has
bought us, has He not? Now as far as you and I are concerned, we need
not have any more doubt as to whether we are the Lord’s; is that so?
[Congregation: “Yes.”]

But there are some people in the world who are not really in
experience His. As a matter of fact, so far as the consummation of
the bargain is concerned, they have not submitted themselves to the
Lord and are not practically His. He has made them His by purchase;
now how can they know that they are His practically and indeed? By
His word. By choosing for themselves to have it just that way. By their
own choice. Steps to Christ gives the whole philosophy of it on page
forty-four. It tells how to make the surrender of ourselves to God. It
says that your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand, and the
knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges, weakens
your confidence in your own sincerity.

And finally: “What you need to understand is the true force

of the will. You cannot save yourself; you cannot change your heart,
but you can choose to serve Him” (Steps to Christ, pg. 47). When the
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man chooses to put his will on side of God’s will, then the thing is
accomplished. Then it is at a man’s choice that he practically, in his
own experience, becomes the Lord’s indeed. Then is it not by the man’s
own permission in choosing the Lord’s way, that the man becomes the
Lord’s in practical experience? Then having done that, don’t you see
that so long as your choice is there, so long as your wish is there to be
the Lord’s, don’t you see that you are the Lord’s indeed? Do you see
that? Whenever we deliver ourselves up to Him, that is so. But some
of you delivered yourself up long ago but since then, you have been
discouraged and wondered whether you were the Lord’s or not.

We want people tonight to get that doubt and question forever

out of the way so that whatever comes up, you will not be bothered
about whether you are the Lord’s. Just as certainly as your choice is
there to be His, you are His, for He bought you long ago. That is the
thing I am after. Is that what you are after? You are to take it if you
ever get it. [Congregation: “Amen.”] Then we can know that we are the
Lord’s.

Would You Rather Have Him or Your Sins?

Now, we sometimes hear people talk as though that was going

to sanction sin. No. It will not do that. No. It will save you from sin-
ning. When a man gets into that place, and his choice is there to be the
Lord’s, then God works in him both to will and to do of His own good
pleasure, and he is a Christian. God will make him a Christian. That is
the divine power there is in this thing. There is no sanction of sin about
it. In fact, it is the only way to keep from sanctioning sin. Any other
profession does sanction sin. Any other profession does do just what
the Lord complains of—that men have made Him to serve with their
sins. What does the Lord say? “You have made me to serve with your
sin.” Isa. 43:24. Let us stop it. Let our will and our choice be the Lord’s
every moment of our conscious days, and then it is a fact.

Let us turn and read the verse that says so. 1 Cor. 6:19 and the
last words of the verse: “You are not your own.” That is so, is it not? I
don’t care who the man is, is he his own? [Congregation: “No sir.”] The

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Lord has bought him and if he does not let the Lord have him, he is
robbing the Lord of that which is the Lord’s own. That is the mischief
of it. Though he be not consciously and practically the Lord’s, yet the
Lord has bought every man. Any man who refuses to let the Lord have
him is robbing the Lord of that which he bought, and that for which
He paid the price. That man is counting the price which bought him as
worth less than himself.

Is not that the same satanic spirit that sought to put itself above
God in heaven? The Lord gave Himself for us; then when I will not let
Him have me, in that very thing I count myself worth more than the
price that was paid. That is, worth more than the Lord, and that is the
same self that puts itself above God all the time. Oh let this mind be in
us that was in Christ, who emptied Himself that God and man might
again be united in one. “You are not your own,” are you? [Congrega-
tion: “No.”] Are you not glad of it? Are you not glad you are not your
own?

He says so, and it is so, is it not? Why is it? “For you are bought
with a price.” He bought us, therefore we are not our own, and before
all the people in the world who are not their own, is the man who has
yielded himself to the Lord who has bought him. “Therefore glorify
God in your body and in your spirit which are God’s.” Whose are they?
[Congregation: “God’s.”] But I need not dwell longer on these verses,
brethren. You do that, will you? You dwell on them.

Well, now we have read the thought in these verses, “He gave
himself for us.” He bought us. How much of us? [Congregation: “All of
us.”] When was it that He did it? [Congregation: “Before the founda-
tion of the world.”] What kind of folks were we before the foundation
of the world? What kind of folks were we when God bought us? We
were just ourselves; just as we were in this world. And He bought us,
sinners, just as we are? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Now did He? Honestly
now?

We are coming to another thought here. Now did He pay that

price and buy us just as we were? Sinners? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Evil
beings and willing to go into evil ways? Willing to do the evil thing?
Making no profession of religion and not particularly wanting to? Did
He buy us then? [Congregation: “Yes.”] What did He buy just then? He
bought us and all there was of us. And as He bought what there was of
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us, He bought our sins. Isaiah describes it—wounds and bruises and
putrefying sores; no soundness at all. Is that so?

Now here is another text, Titus 3:3-7: “For we ourselves also

were sometimes foolish, disobedient, serving divers lusts and plea-
sures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But af-
ter that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy he saves us, by the washing to regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ
our Savior: that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life.”

He did it; He says so. Then do you know that that is so? [Con-
gregation: “Yes.”] Well now let us carry that a little further. He gave
Himself for our sins, but the same thought goes through all. He will
not take our sins—although He bought them—without our permis-
sion.

Look at it a little further, carrying the same thought forward.

“He gave Himself.” for whose sins? [Congregation: “Ours.”] Whose
were they? [Congregation: “Ours.”] He gave Himself for them. They
being ours, to whom did He give Himself when He bought them?
[Congregation: “To us.”] He gave Himself to me, for my sins? [Congre-
gation: “Yes.”] Then the choice is forever with me as to whether I would
rather have my sins than to have Him, isn’t it? [Congregation: “Yes.”]
That is the living choice before me, is it? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Is that the choice before you? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Which

would you rather have, your sins or Christ? [Congregation: “Christ.”]
Then from this time henceforth can there be any hesitation about let-
ting anything go that God shows is sin? Will you let it go when it is
pointed out? When sin is pointed out to you, say, “I would rather have
Christ than that.” And let it go [Congregation: “Amen.”] Just tell the
Lord, “Lord, I make the choice now. I make the trade. I make YOU my
choice. It is gone, and I have something better.” Thank the Lord! Then
where in the world is the opportunity for any of us to get discouraged
over our sins?

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 The Blessed Work of Sanctification

Now some of the brethren here have done that very thing. They
came here free, but the Spirit of God brought up something they never
saw before. The Spirit of God went deeper than it ever went before
and revealed things they never saw before. Then, instead of thanking
the Lord that it was so, and letting the whole wicked business go and
thanking the Lord they had ever so much more of Him than they ever
had before, they began to get discouraged. They said, “Oh what am I
going to do? My sins are so great.” There they let Satan cast a cloud over
them and throw them into discouragement and they didn’t receive any
good out of the meetings, day after day. Isn’t that too bad? Isn’t it too
bad that a person whom the Lord has loved so much as to give Himself
should act that way with the Lord when the Lord wants to reveal more
of Himself?

Brethren, if any of you have gotten into discouragement, let

us quit it. If the Lord has brought up sins to us that we never thought
of before, that only shows that He is going down to the depths and He
will reach the bottom at last. And when He finds the last thing that is
unclean, impure and out of harmony with His will, and shows it to us
and we say, “I would rather have the Lord than that,” then the work is
complete and the seal of the living God can be fixed upon that charac-
ter. [Congregation: “Amen.”]

Which would you rather have, a character –[Someone in

the congregation began praising the Lord and others began to look
around.] Never mind. If lots more of you would thank the Lord for
what you have received, there would be more joy in this house tonight.
Which would you rather have, the completeness, the perfect fulness of
Jesus Christ, or have less than that with some of your sins covered up
that you never know of? [Congregation: “His fulness.”]

Don’t you see then that the Testimonies have told us that if
there be stains of sin on us, we cannot have the seal of God? How in the
world can that seal of God, which is the impress of His perfect char-
acter revealed in us, be put upon us when there are sins about us? He
cannot put the seal, the impress of His perfect character, upon us until
He sees it there. He has got to dig down to the deep places we never

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dreamed of, because we cannot understand our hearts. But the Lord
knows the heart. He tries the conscience. He will cleanse the heart, and
bring up the last vestige of wickedness.

Let Him go on, brethren; let Him keep on His searching work.
And when He does bring our sins before us, let the heart say, “Lord,
You gave Yourself for my sins. Oh, I take YOU instead of them.” They
are gone, and I rejoice in the Lord. Brethren, let us be honest with the
Lord, and treat Him as He wants us to. He gave Himself to us for our
sins. Then I say again, that it is simply with you and me to make a living
choice as to whether we will have the Lord or ourselves. Will we have
the Lord’s righteousness or our sins, the Lord’s way or our own way?
Which will we have? [Congregation: “The Lord’s way.”]

It is not difficult to make the choice when we know what the

Lord has done, and what He is to us. The choice is easy. Let the surren-
der be complete. And when these sins come up—why, they were sur-
rendered long ago. That is all they are brought up for – so that we can
make the choice. This is the blessed work of sanctification. And when
this happens, we can know that that work of sanctification is going on
in us. If the Lord should take away our sins without our knowing it,
what good would it do us? That would simply be making machines of
us and He does not propose to do that.

Consequently, He wants you and me to know when our sins

go, that we may know when His righteousness comes. It is when we
yield ourselves that we have Him. It is true that the Scriptures say we
are instruments of God, and don’t you forget that we are always intelli-
gent instruments—not like the pick or a shovel that a man would use.
That is utterly senseless – we are intelligent instruments. We will be
used by the Lord at our own living choice. When our own living choice
is put on His side, choosing that He will do His will with us—then it is
done. This is because it is His almighty power carries on the work.

True Confession

He gave Himself for our sins and now He comes and says,
“There is sin.” What then? We say, “Lord, it is sin.” That is confession.
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The root idea of confession is to speak the same thing. The root idea of
the Greek word translated confession is to speak the same thing. That
is confession. The Lord said to David, “You have sinned and done this
evil.” David said, “I have sinned.” That is confession. The Bible says, “If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” What
does God show them for anyway? The only reason that God shows
men their sins for, is that He may take them away. When He shows
me sins, I say, “Lord, they are sins.” And what then? They are forgiven.
They are gone.

Now you folks have confessed your sins since you have been
here, haven’t you? All that the Lord has shown you, haven’t you? [Con-
gregation: “Yes sir.”] Everyone who has done that, his sins are forgiven.
The Lord has said so. What do you say? [Congregation: “Amen.”] But
Satan says, “It is not so.” He is a liar. But some folks here have been say-
ing that Satan tells the truth upon that point. People in this house have
been telling Satan that he told the truth upon that very point. Satan
says, “They are not forgiven,” and they say, “Yes, they are not.” Let us
quit that. We confess our sins that they may be forgiven, and the Lord
says they are forgiven. When they are forgiven, why then in the Lord’s
name, let us say so!

“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righ-

teousness.” “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the
righteousness of the faith which he had.” The Lord says, “Come now,
let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool.” What do you say? [Congregation: “It is so.”] How do
you know? [Congregation: “The Lord says so.”] Very good.

Then you know that is so, do you? Micah 7:19: “He will turn
again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities;
and He will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Then where are
they? [Congregation: “In the depths of the sea.”] How do you know?
[Congregation: “He says so.”] Then you know that, don’t you? Then
how in the world is anybody going to bother you about getting your
sins back to you?

Again in Ps. 103:12: “As far as the east is from the west, so far
has He removed our transgressions from us.” How far are they away
from you now, you who have confessed them? How far are they away?
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[Voice: “As far as the east is from the west.”] Why don’t you say so then?
Satan comes and says, “They are not forgiven. Every sin is right there
before your face; don’t you see them?” Are they? [Congregation: “No.”]
Says one, “I have seen them there.” It is nothing of the kind. Satan is a
magician and can make things appear so that are not so.

You however, look at them and say, “Yes, that is so.” It is not so.
The Lord says they are as far from us as the east is from the west. They
are in the depths of the sea, and they are as white as snow. Thank the
Lord. Isa. 38:17, and that verse is the last one we need tonight. “Behold,
for peace I had great bitterness; but thou hast in love to my soul deliv-
ered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind
thy back.” How many? [Congregation: “All.”] Behind his back. Where
are they, then? [Congregation: “Behind his back.”]

We are before his face and the sins are behind his back, then
who is between us and them? [Congregation: “God.”] And He is upon
His throne, isn’t He? Then when I have confessed my sins to the Lord,
He and His living eternal throne stand between me and those sins, and
Satan and everybody else in this universe cannot bring them back; for
he has got to get the Lord and His throne out of the way before they can
get those sins back to me again. And I am going to be glad of it!

Can we know these things? Can we know that we know them?

How can we know that we know them? The Lord says so. When He
says so, and we believe it, that is faith. Satan says, “They are not.” We
say, “I know they are.” Satan says, “No, there they are.” We say, they are
not there. They are in the depths of the sea. [Voice: “Praise the Lord.”]
When the man stands there, there is just the place that God can put
His seal. When the Lord says, “Your sins are forgiven,” that he has “cast
them behind His back” and the man will not believe it, is there any-
thing there that God can put His seal on? No.

“I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for MY

own sake and I will not remember your sins.” [this was read after
someone suggested it]. There are many other texts like that which we
might notice. One is found in Heb. 8:15, “Their sins will I remember
no more.” Another is found in Ezekiel 33:16: “None of his sins that
he has committed shall be mentioned unto him.” Here the Lord says
He will not remember our sins. The Lord will never mention them. It
is Satan’s work to do that. Brethren, let us believe the Lord. When we
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believe, then God will give you and me the circumcision of the heart,
the seal of the righteousness of the faith that we have and He can do it,
because there is something there that He can put His seal upon. And
when a man does that as an individual, he receives the seal of righ-
teousness. And when we believe that as a whole body, as a church, we
can ask with perfect confidence for the outpouring of His Holy Spirit
and wait patiently and confidently, knowing that it will surely come in
His own good time.

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131
 CHAPTER NINE
The Place of the Law in Righteousness by Faith

Our study last night was in order to know for ourselves, with-
out a shadow of a doubt, that we have the blessing of Abraham, that
with confidence we may ask for the Spirit of God. There is more to that
subject. The Lord has given us yet further evidence and proof upon
which to base our perfect confidence in Him. We are to have confi-
dence that His righteousness is our own—that we have the righteous-
ness which is by faith, so that we can ask in perfect confidence for His
Holy Spirit and thank the Lord that it is our own. For remember, the
verse reads: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us: for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone that hangs
on a tree:’ That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith.”

The blessing of Abraham is the righteousness of faith. That is

what we are to have in order to receive (that we may have) the prom-
ise of the Spirit, and that also is through faith. Well then, when we
have the evidence, the proof, the perfect work of God demonstrating
to our complete satisfaction, that we can ask in perfect confidence for
the Holy Spirit, then is it not ours to receive that by faith? Is it not ours
to thank God that it is our own? Doesn’t it then simply remain for Him
to manifest it at His own will, whenever occasion may require?

Well, let us study then, some other evidence that He has given
us. Let us study this tonight in connection with what we had last night,
so that we may have before us fresh, what the Lord Himself has opened
for us. Upon this evidence, we are to base our confidence before Him,
that we may be sure where we stand and that we may ask with the full
assurance of faith. When we ask according to His will and ask that we
may have that which He has promised, then He hears us. “This is the
confidence that we have in Him that, if we ask anything according to
His will, He hears us: and if we know that he hear us,” then “we know
that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” 1 John 5:14, 15. And
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then we can thank Him that that thing is our own.

Let us begin with the fifth chapter of Romans, and the twenti-
eth verse. The real point, or we might say, one of the main points of the
study tonight is to see what place the law of God occupies in the sub-
ject of righteousness by faith. We are to see what place the law of God
occupies in our obtaining righteousness alone by Jesus Christ. This is
simply another phase of the same thought we had last night as to what
proof the Lord has given us to give us confidence that we can claim by
faith the promise of the Holy Spirit.

“Moreover, the law entered, that the offense might abound.” In

the last words of Romans 3:20, (words with which you are all familiar)
“by the law is the knowledge of sin.” What was the law given for on ta-
bles of stone—the first purpose of its being given? [Congregation: “To
show us what sin is.”] To make sin abound; to give the knowledge of
sin. So, “the law entered that the offense might abound”; that sin might
appear; that it might appear as it is.

Paul, speaking in the 7th chapter of Romans, says how it ap-

peared to him. In the 12th and 13th verses I read: “Wherefore the law
is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that
which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might
appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by
the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” Then to make sin
abound and make it appear as it is, exceedingly sinful—that is the first
object of the giving of the law, isn’t it?

Now let us read right on in Rom. 5: “Moreover the law en-

tered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound.” Then did the law come alone, making sin to
appear alone, and that alone? [Congregation: “No.”] It is simply the
means to another end. It is the means to an end by which to attain
another object beyond the knowledge of sin. Is that so? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] So then, where sin abounds—where is it that grace abounds?
[Congregation: “In the same place.”] Right there? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] But does it read that way, “Where sin abounded grace abound-
ed”? [Congregation: “No. ‘Much more.’”] That would be pretty good,
wouldn’t it, if it only said that where sin abounds, grace abounds? That
would be pretty good, but that is not the way the Lord does things, you
know. He does things absolutely well—entirely good, just as good as
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God could do.

Well, then, “where sin abounded, grace did much more

abound.” [Congregation: “Amen.”] Then brethren, when the Lord by
His law has given us the knowledge of sin, just at that very moment,
at that very point, grace is much more abundant than the knowledge
of sin. Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Now another word from this
statement, “By the law is the knowledge of sin”.

So far, we have found this much: that when the law gives the
knowledge of sin, at that particular moment, in that very place and
at that very point and in that very thing, the grace of God is much
more abundant than the knowledge of sin. But when the law gives the
knowledge of sin, what puts the conviction there? [Congregation: “The
Spirit of God.”] Before we read the passage that says so, however, let us
see what we are to get so far, from what we have read. What are you and
I henceforth to get from the knowledge of sin? [Congregation: “Abun-
dance of grace.”] Then there is no possible place for discouragement at
the sight of sins any more, is there? [Congregation: “No.”] No possibili-
ty of that. It is impossible. You see, it is impossible for you or me to get
discouraged or under a cloud any more at the knowledge of sin.

There is no difference as to how great the knowledge is, no

difference how many sins are revealed to us and brought to our knowl-
edge – why, right there, at that very moment, in those very things,
and at that very time in our experience, the grace of God much more
abounds than all the knowledge of sins. Well then, I say again, how is
it possible for us ever to be discouraged?

Brethren, isn’t it so that the Lord wants us to be of good cheer?

[Congregation: “Amen!”] Be of good cheer. Well now, this verse that
we have before us brings the same thing to view. John 16:7,8: “Nev-
ertheless I tell you the truth.” What is He telling us? [Congregation:
“Truth.”] Good! And He told us also that “You shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free.” That is it, then, isn’t it? “Neverthe-
less I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go
not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” Who will not come?
[Congregation: “The Comforter.”] The Comforter? Is that His name? Is
that what He is--the Comforter? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

“But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is

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come,” Who has come? [Congregation: “the Comforter.”] Who? [Con-
gregation: “The Comforter.”] “And when he is come, he will reprove [or
convince] the world of sin.” Who is it that does it? [Congregation: “The
Comforter.”] Is it the Comforter that convinces of sin? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] Is He the Comforter when He does it? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Now, each one wants to get hold of that. Is not He the reprover
when He does it and the Comforter some other time? [Congregation:
“No.”] It is the Comforter that reproves, thank the Lord! The Comfort-
er reproves, thank the Lord! Then what are we to get out of the reproof
of sin? [Congregation: “Comfort.”] Whose comfort? [Congregation:
The Lord’s comfort.”] The comfort we get, comforts just at the time
when it is needed. Then where is the room for our getting discouraged
any more at the knowledge of sin? Isn’t that the very thought that we
have read in the fifth chapter of Romans?

Don’t you see, then, that when we bear in mind just at the mo-
ment and at the time and at the place, that where sin abounds, there
grace much more abounds, and just at the time when the Holy Spirit
is giving conviction of sin, He is the Comforter that does it? Don’t you
see that in all this (in remembering all this), we have an everlasting
victory over Satan? Does Satan get the advantage of that man who be-
lieves God correctly then? No. Satan comes and says, “See, what a sin-
ner you are.” Thank the Lord, “Where sin abounds, grace does much
more abound.” [Congregation: “Amen!”]

“Well,” says another, “I have such a deep conviction of sin. It

seems to me I was never convicted of sin so deeply before in all my life.”
Thank the Lord, we have also received more comfort than ever before
in our lives! Don’t you see brethren, that it is so? [Congregation: “It is
so.”] Well then, let us thank the Lord for that. [Congregation: “Amen!”]
I should like to know why we should not praise the Lord right along.

But there is more there in Rom. 5:20. What is this all for?
First, we found that the law makes sin abound in order that grace may
abound, so that we may have the grace to lead us to Christ. Now what
are the two things together for? The law makes sin abound in order
that more grace may abound. What are they both together for? “That
as sin has reigned unto death.” We know that’s so, don’t we? Now that
is so.

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 The law makes sin abound, that we may be led to a greater
abundance of grace, in order “that as sin has reigned unto death, even
so might grace reign.” What does “even so” mean? Just as certainly. Just
so. Then, isn’t it so that God will make that abundance of grace to reign
in our lives just as certainly as ever sin did in the world? [Congrega-
tion: “Yes sir.”] But mark you, when the grace much more bountifully
reigns, then what is the comparison between freedom from sin now
and the slavery to it before? The freedom is much more abundant even
than the slavery was. “That as sin has reigned unto death, even so (just
as surely) might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by
Jesus Christ.”

Now let us see the whole story. “The law entered that the of-
fense might abound,” in order that we might find the more abundant
grace abounding right there in all those places. And the grace abounds
“through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Then what did the law enter for? [Voice: “To bring us to the Lord.”]

What did the law enter for? [Voice: “To bring us to Christ.”]
Yes. Don’t you see? Then whenever anybody in this world uses the ten
commandments--when any sinner in this world uses the ten com-
mandments for any other purpose than to reach Jesus Christ, what
kind of a purpose is He putting them to? [Congregation: “A wrong
purpose.”] He is perverting the intent of God in giving the law, isn’t
He? [Congregation: “A wrong purpose.”] He is perverting the intent of
God in giving the law, isn’t he? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] To use the law
of God with men for any other purpose, therefore, than that they may
reach Christ Jesus, is to use the law in a way that God never intended it
to be used.

The Law Looks for Righteousness in us, and Christ Provides it!

Well, then the law then brings us to Christ. That’s certain.

What for? [Congregation: “That we may be justified.”] What does the
law want of you and me? Does it make any demands of us before we
reach Jesus Christ? When the law finds us, does it want anything from
us? [Congregation: “It wants righteousness.”] What kind? [Congrega-

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tion: “Perfect righteousness.”] Whose? [Congregation: “God’s.”] God’s
righteousness? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Just such righteousness alone
as God manifests in His own life, in His own way of doing things?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] Will that law be content with anything less than
that from you and me? Will it accept anything less than that, a hair’s
breadth less? [Congregation: “No.”]

If we could come within a hair’s breadth of it, that is still far too
short. We miss it. Turn to Timothy, and there Paul tells us what the law
wants out of you and me and what it wants in us, too. 1 Tim. 1:5: “Now
the end (the object, the aim, the intent, the purpose) of the command-
ment is charity.” What is charity? [Congregation: “Love.”] What kind of
love? [Congregation: “The love of God.”] “Out of a pure heart.” What
kind of a heart? [Congregation: “A pure heart.”] “And of a good con-
science.” What kind of a conscience? [Congregation: “Good.”] “And of
faith unfeigned.”

That is what the law wants to find in you and me, isn’t it? Will it
accept you and me with anything less than that which it demands--per-
fect love, manifested “out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and of
faith unfeigned”? No, never. Well then, it is simply perfection that it
demands. Well now, have we (has any man in the world) any of that
kind of love to offer to the law of God? [Congregation: “No.”] Has any
man naturally that kind of a conscience? [Congregation: “No.”] No sir.

Well then, the law makes that demand of every man on the
earth tonight, no difference who he is. He makes it of you and me; he
makes that demand of people in Africa and of all the people on the
earth, and he will not accept anything less than that from anyone of
them. But we are talking about ourselves tonight. So, the law comes
to you and me tonight and says: “I want charity, I want perfect love.
I want the love of God. I want to see it in your life all the time. And I
want to see it manifested out of a pure heart and through a good con-
science and unfeigned faith.” That is where we are.

“Well,” says one, “I have not got it. I have done my best.” But
the law will say, “that is not what I want. I don’t want your best. I want
perfection. It is not your doing I want anyhow; it is God’s that I want.
It is not your righteousness I am after; I want God’s righteousness from
you. It is not your doing I want. I want God’s doing in your life.” That is
what the law says to every man.
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 Then, when I am shut off thus at the very first question and
even then, when I said I did my best, then I have nothing more to say.
Is that not what the scripture says: “That every mouth may be stopped.”
It does just that, does it not? But there comes a still small voice saying,
“Here is a perfect life; here is the life of God. Here is a pure heart; here
is a good conscience. here is unfeigned faith.” Where does that voice
come from? [Congregation: “Christ.”] Ah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
came and stood where I stand in the flesh in which I live. He lived
there. The perfect love of God was manifested there. The perfect pu-
rity of heart was manifested there. A good conscience was manifested
there, and the unfeigned faith of the mind that was in Jesus Christ is
there.

Well then, He simply comes and tells me, “Here, take this.”
That will satisfy then, will it? [Congregation: “Yes.”] The life manifest-
ed in Jesus Christ, that will satisfy the law. The purity of heart that
Jesus Christ gives, that will satisfy the law. The good conscience that
He can create, that will satisfy. The unfeigned faith which He gives, that
will satisfy. Will it? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Well then, is that not what
the law wants all the time? It is Jesus Christ that the law wants, is it
not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] That is what the law wants: that is the same
thing which it calls for in the fifth of Romans, is it not? But why does it
call for it in connection with me? It calls for Christ in me, because the
law wants to see that thing in me. Then is not the object of the law of
God the gospel of Christ alone? “Christ in you the hope of glory?” Ah,
that is so.

In Rom. 5:1, 5 we read that being “justified by faith we have

peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”, and “the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
And that is charity. Supreme love. Acts 15:8, 9 says; “And God which
knows the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even
as He did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purify-
ing their hearts by faith.”

There is the love of God out of a pure heart. Heb. 9:14 says:
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?” There is a clean conscience,
brethren, and there is the love of God out of a good conscience. Then
that faith which He gives, which He enables us to keep (the faith of
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Jesus which enables us to keep the commandments of God), then there
is the love of God by a faith unfeigned.

Oh then, the message of the righteousness of God which is by

faith in Jesus Christ, brings us to, and brings to us, the perfect fulfill-
ment of the law of God, does it not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then that
is the object and the aim and the one single point of the third angel’s
message, is it not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] That is Christ. Christ in His
righteousness. Christ in His purity. Christ in His love. Christ in His
gentleness. Christ in His entire being. Christ and Him crucified.

That is the word, brethren. Let us be glad of it; let us be glad of

it. [Congregation: “Amen.”] So then when we have Jesus, when we have
received Him by faith and the law stands before us, or we stand before
it, and it makes its wondrous demand of charity, we can say, “Here it is.
It is in Christ and He is mine!” Out of a pure heart we can say, “Here it
is in Christ, and He has given it to me--a good conscience.” The blood
of Christ has created it in me. Here it is. “Faith unfeigned,” the faith in
Jesus. He has given it to me. Here it is. Then just as Steps to Christ tells
us, we can come to Jesus now and be cleansed and stand before the law
without one touch of shame or remorse. Good. Brethren, when I have
that which makes me at perfect agreement with the law of God, then I
am satisfied, and cannot help but be glad that I am satisfied.

The Law as a Witness

Now let us turn and read the third chapter of Romans. That
tells the whole story without any further study. We simply need to read
the text – Rom. 3:19-22. We can say amen to every word of it now, right
straight along. “Now we know.” And that is so. “That what things what-
soever the law says, it says to those who are under the law. That every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God.” And is it not that? That which tells me that I am a sinner cannot
tell me that I am righteous. “But now”--good. When? [Congregation:
“Now.”]

All right, let us say so brethren. “But now the righteousness

of God without the law is manifested.” That is so, is it not? [Congre-
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gation: “Yes.”] The law cannot manifest it in us, because we cannot see
it there. It is there, but we are so blind that we cannot see it there. Sin
has so blinded and corrupted us that we cannot see it in the law. And
if we could see it there, we could not get it there, because there is not
anything in us to start with that is fit for it. We are utterly helpless.

So now “the righteousness of God without the law is manifest-

ed. …even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
unto all and upon all them that believe.” What does that word “believe”
mean when God speaks it? [Congregation: “Faith.”] And what is genu-
ine faith? Submission of the will to Him, a yielding of the heart to Him
and a fixing of the affections upon Him. That is what He means here to
those who will receive Him, because believing is receiving when God
speaks. He says so in the first chapter of John and the 12th verse. “But
as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name.” “Even the righteous-
ness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them
that believe: for there is no difference.” Then everyone here can have it
tonight? Can have it? Have it, because we believe it.

Well now, that is the object of the law then, is it not? To bring
us to Jesus Christ that we may be justified by faith or made righteous
by faith, that His righteousness (the righteousness of God in Christ)
may be ours? That is it. Well, when that is true, when we have gotten
there, then what is the use of the law? Then what is the law for? [Con-
gregation: “It witnesses.”] Exactly.

Let us read now that part of the twenty-first verse that I did
not read: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is man-
ifested, being witnessed by the law.” That is as far as we need to read
just now. The other belongs there, though. Then, when the law gives
a knowledge of sin in order that we may have the knowledge of the
abundance of grace to take away the sin, then grace reigns through that
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. Then, this righteous-
ness of God by faith in Christ is our own through the working of the
law. The knowledge of sin (through the law) has brought us to Christ
and we have Him, and the law is satisfied in all its demands that it has
made upon us.

Now when it is satisfied in all its demands it has made upon

us, then will it stick to that and keep on saying that it is satisfied. Will
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it keep saying that it is all right? When the law has made demands
upon us that we cannot satisfy by any other possible means except by
Jesus Christ being present in ourselves, then will the law of God, as
long as we stay there, stand right there and say, “That is right, and I
am satisfied with it”? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then if anybody begins to
question it and says, “It is not so,” then we have witnesses to prove it,
haven’t we?

Now you see this: that it is necessary for several reasons that
we should have witnesses. One in our own connection and in our own
personal experience is this: When God speaks and we believe it. Then
we know, each one for himself that the righteousness of God is our
own and that we are entitled to it, that it belongs to us, and that we
can rest in perfect peace upon it. But there are other people that need
to know this, too. Can they know it by my saying so? [Congregation:
“No.”] Can they know it by my saying that I assent to this, and that I say
that is so and therefore it is so? Will that convince them? Is that proof
enough to them? [Congregation: “No.”] They need something better
even than my word. Don’t you see, the Lord has met that very demand
and has given us witnesses to which they can appeal, and they can go
and ask these witnesses whenever they please, whether this that we
have is genuine or not. Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

They need not come and inquire of us. If they inquire of us, of
course we can tell them what the Lord has told us to say and if that is
not enough, they can go and ask those witnesses. We can say, “There
are some friends of mine. They know me from my birth till now. They
know me better than I do myself and if you want any more than this
that I say, go and ask them. They will tell you.” How many of them are
there? [Congregation: “Ten.”]

Is their word worth anything? Do they tell the truth? Ah, they
are truth itself. They are the truth. Psalm 119:142. Well then, it is im-
possible for them to testify otherwise in bearing witness than that.
When they say that the demand is satisfied, when they say, “This life is
well pleasing to me,” that is enough for anybody in the universe, is it
not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] So then, the man who claims to believe in
Jesus and claims the righteousness of God which comes to the believer
in Jesus, is his merely claiming it enough for this world? [Congrega-
tion: “No.”] Is our word in regard to it enough in itself? [Congregation:
“No.”]
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 Well, they will say and there are lots of them that will say it,
“Why yes, we believe in the Savior. I have a right to claim too, the righ-
teousness that He has, the perfect holiness and perfect sanctification,
and that I have not sinned for ten years and am above all temptation
even, and I know it.” Well, how do you know it? “Why, I feel it in my
heart. I feel it in my heart and have for several years.” Well, that is no
evidence at all, for “the heart is deceitful above all things and desper-
ately wicked.” Deceitful above how many things? [Congregation: “All
things.”] All things? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Above Satan even? [Con-
gregation: “Yes.”] Is the heart actually deceitful above all things? [Con-
gregation: “Yes.”] He says so, whether we can understand it or not. It is
more deceitful than Satan himself, isn’t it? [Congregation: “Yes.”] The
heart will deceive me quicker and more often than Satan will.

Well then, when that person feels in his heart, is that a good
kind of evidence? When my heart says that I am good, then what is it
doing? [Congregation: “It is deceiving.”] Solomon said, “He that trusts
his own heart is a fool.” And he is not only a fool, but he is fooled in this
thing, is he not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] It is bad enough for a wise man
to be fooled, but when a fool is fooled, what in the world is the thing
coming to? Therefore, we cannot afford to trust such things as
that on such an important question as this. No sir. We need better evi-
dence than a man’s heart, that he has got the righteousness of God and
that he is all right and is fit for the judgment, and that he has not sinned
for ten years, holy and sanctified and above temptation, etc. We need
something better than that, and the fact of the matter is, Jesus was here
in this world a good while, and He was never above temptations while
He was here. Christians are not either, while they live.

Well then, that evidence is not enough. We want something

more than that. And if that person who claims to have the righteous-
ness of God by faith in Jesus Christ has only that for a witness, and his
testimony can go only that far, then what is his claim worth? [Congre-
gation: “Nothing at all.”] Just nothing at all. It is a deceptive claim. He
never can realize upon it. So the Lord has not left us there.

Last night we found in our lesson that when we want to know

that these things are so in our experience, we are not to look within to
find out whether it is so, but to look at what God says to see whether it
is so. When we have found Jesus Christ and have Him, then the Lord
does not want us to look within to see whether He is there. He has
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furnished us witnesses, whose testimony will tell us all the time that
He is there and these will tell everybody else that He is there. The righ-
teousness of God is now manifested, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
and when it is manifested, it is witnessed by the law.

Then the law is, first, to bring us unto Christ. After it has led
us to Christ and we have found Him, then it witnesses to the truth
of that fact. First the law is to give the knowledge of sin, and second
to witness to the righteousness of God which is by faith. Well then,
what is anybody who uses the law of God for any other purpose than
these two purposes at any time, what is He doing with the law of God?
[Congregation: “Perverting it.”] He is perverting the whole thing. He is
using it for purposes that God never intended at all.

So then, though a man or an angel use the law of God in any

other way or for any other purpose than those two things (a man can
use it for both but angels can use it for only one), He has perverted the
law of God. Where is our righteousness from? [Congregation: “God.”]
“Their righteousness is of me, says the Lord.” 2 Cor. 4:6. “For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ.” Where do we find the knowledge of the glory of God?
[Congregation: “In the face of Jesus Christ.”] In the face of Jesus Christ.

Now 2 Cor. 3:18 says; “But we all, with open face beholding as
in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Then what is it that we
see in the face of Jesus Christ? [Congregation: “The glory of the Lord.”]
What is the glory of the Lord? We have read here, we have been told
here, by the Spirit of God, that the message of the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ, that is the beginning of the glory that
is to lighten the whole earth. Then what is the glory of God? His righ-
teousness; His character. Where do we find it? In Jesus Christ. There
is the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. He said so, you
see. That is where we look for it.

Do we look to the law for righteousness? [Congregation: “No.”]

Even after we have been brought to Christ, do we look there for righ-
teousness? [Congregation: “No.”] Where do we look for righteousness?
In the face of Jesus Christ. There “we all, with open face beholding as
in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from
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glory to glory,” from righteousness to righteousness, from character to
character, from goodness to goodness, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Then don’t you see how the righteousness of God and the Holy
Spirit go hand in hand? Don’t you see that when we obtain the righ-
teousness which is by faith of Jesus Christ, the blessing of Abraham
indeed, that then the Holy Spirit cannot be kept away from us? You
cannot separate the two. They belong together. Then when we have
that and know that we have that, by the faith in His word, then He says
we have a right to ask for the Holy Spirit and to receive it too.

Why, look at it in Gal. 4:5: He came “to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts.”
He sends it. He does not want to hold it back. He sends it into the heart.
It is a free gift. Then I say, don’t you see that it is impossible to keep the
righteousness of God and the Holy Spirit separate? So then when we
are “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord”, and when the image of God in Jesus Christ is found
in us, what then? There is the impress, the seal of God.

You have heard that in the other lessons. When by looking into
the face of Jesus Christ and there alone, having received the righteous-
ness of God which is by faith in Him and looking ever into His glorious
face that reflects the glory of God, the effect of that is to change us into
the same image, to perfect the image of God and restore it in us by the
working of the Spirit of God upon the soul. And when that is done,
then the same Spirit of God is there to affix the seal of the living God,
the eternal impress of His own image.

So then after we have come to Christ, after we have found

Him, then we do not look into the law for righteousness. Where do
we look? [Congregation: “In the face of Jesus Christ.”] Into the face
of Jesus Christ, and while we look there what does the law say? [Con-
gregation: “That is right.”] The law testifies, “That is the place to look.
That is what I want you to have. That is satisfactory. We are perfectly
agreed.” Where in heaven do the angels look? Don’t they look into the
law to see whether they are right or not? [Voice: “Always beholding
the face of our Father.”] “Their angels do always behold the face of my
Father which is in heaven.” Then where does the righteousness
of the angels come from? [Congregation: “God.”] From God through
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Jesus Christ, is it not? And what does the law in the throne of God, the
foundation of His throne, what does the original copy of His law do
there? When the angels look into the face of Him who sits upon the
throne, what does the law that never was touched by man, and never
could be—what does it do there? It witnesses to the righteousness of
God which they obtain without the law.

This was always the true idea of the uses of the law of God.
When the people had sinned and done anything against the com-
mandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done
and were guilty, then they were to bring the sacrifice and they were for-
given (Lev. 4). And then as now, the commandments witnessed to the
righteousness which they obtained by faith in Jesus. And therefore the
Tabernacle was called “The Tabernacle of witness” (Acts 7:44, Num-
bers 17:7, 8; 18:2). The tabernacle of the testimony is the same thing,
because testimony is the evidence given by a witness.

So then, the tabernacle was the tabernacle of witness or testi-

mony, the ark was the ark of the testimony or witness, because it con-
tained the tables of the testimony. The tables of stone, the tables of the
law, were the tables of the testimony because they were the evidence of
the witness, which God appointed to witness to the righteousness of
God, which comes without the law by faith of Jesus Christ alone. Then
it is everlastingly true throughout the universe that, “If righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Gal. 2:21. Forever and
everywhere it is true that, “Their righteousness is of me, says the Lord.”
And the law witnesses to the righteousness which all obtain from God
without the law, but by Jesus Christ.

The Sabbath as a Witness

Then isn’t it true, as I said a while ago, that whether man or

angel, if he uses the law of God for any other purpose than one or both
of these two purposes, he perverts the law of God entirely from what
God ever intended. Well then, the righteousness of God which is by
faith of Jesus Christ, that satisfies everything, does it not? Everything
now, and how long? [Congregation: “Forever.”] Now and evermore it

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satisfies everything.

Well then, we may know for our own selves that it is ours by
the evidences that God gave us last night and they are everlastingly
sure, and everybody in this world may know that we are entitled to
it, by the witnesses that God has given. This is to fit us for the seal of
God, the righteousness of God, in order that through this we may be
changed from glory to glory, into the same image, and when that is
completed what then? What witnesses to that? [Congregation: “The
Sabbath of the Lord.”] It will witness to that finished completed work
all the way through.

As Professor Prescott gave us in his sermon, it is the presence

of Christ that makes holy and sanctifies the place where it is. And when
the presence of Christ is there in its fulness, then what is that place?
That is sanctified. What is the sign of sanctification? [Congregation:
The Sabbath.”] And complete sanctification is God’s complete work in
the soul. Then when the work of God is completed in the soul, the law
of God will witness to it all the way. But what particular part of the law
of God is a witness to that particular thing, the complete sanctification
of His people? [Congregation: “The Sabbath of the Lord.”] It stands
there as the witness and as the chief witness, and the two coming to-
gether testify and the seal is affixed. That work is completed.

Brethren, how can we get away from the seal of God? Are we
not right now in the time of the sealing? [Congregation: “Yes.”] And it
is through the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, is
it not? Yes sir. And then when that seal is received; when that is affixed
there, then these people can stand through the time of the plagues,
through all the temptations and trials of Satan when he works with
all power and signs and lying wonders. For the promise is, “as you
have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour
of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that
dwell upon the earth.” And when that is past, the next event will be the
entrance into the heavenly city. Entrance into the heavenly city—thank
the Lord. There are the tests that we are to pass through, but brethren,
when we have this righteousness of Jesus Christ, we have that which
will pass through every test.

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 A Complete Savior

In that day there are going to be two parties there. There are
going to be some there when the door is shut, and they will want to go
in, and they say, “Lord, open to us. We want to come in.” And some-
one comes and asks, “What have you done that you should come in?
What right have you to enter the inheritance here? What claim have
you upon that?” “Oh, we are acquainted with You. We have eaten and
drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets.

Yes, besides that, we have prophesied in Your name. In Your

name we have cast out devils and in Your name we have done many
wonderful works. Why, we have done many wonderful things. Lord, is
not that evidence enough? Open the door.” What is the answer? “De-
part from me, you that work iniquity.” What did they say? “We have
done many wonderful works. We have done them. We are all right. We
are righteous. We are just. Exactly right. Therefore, we have a right to
be there. Open the door.” But “we” does not count there, does it?

There is going to be another company there that day—a great

multitude that no man can number—all nations and kindreds and
tongues and people, and they will come up to enter in. And if anyone
should ask them that question, “What have you done that you should
enter here? What claim have you here?” The answer would be: “Oh, I
have not done anything at all to deserve it. I am a sinner, dependent
only on the grace of the Lord. Oh I was so wretched, so completely a
captive and in such a bondage that nobody could deliver me but the
Lord Himself. I was so miserable that all I could ever do was to have
the Lord constantly comfort me. I was so poor that I had to constantly
to beg from the Lord. I was so blind that no one but the Lord could
cause me to see and so naked that no one could clothe me, but the Lord
Himself.

All the claim that I have is what Jesus has done for me. But
the Lord has loved me. When in my wretchedness I cried, He delivered
me. When in my misery I wanted comfort, He comforted me all the
way. When in my poverty I begged, He gave me riches. When in my
blindness I asked Him to show me the way, that I might know the way,
He led me all the way and made me to see. When I was so naked that

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no one could clothe me, why, He gave me this garment that I have on.
So all I can present, all that I have to present as that upon which I can
enter, any claim that would cause me to enter, is just what He has done
for me. If that will not pass me then I will be left out, and that will be
just too. If I am left out, I have no complaint to make. But, oh, will not
this entitle me to enter and possess the inheritance?”

But he says, “Well, there are some very particular persons

here. They want to be fully satisfied with everybody that goes by here.
We have ten examiners here. When they look into a man’s case and say
that he is all right, why then he can pass. Are you willing that these
shall be called to examine into your case?” And we shall answer, “Yes,
yes, because I want to enter in, and I am willing to submit to any exam-
ination, because even if I am left out I have no complaint to make. I am
lost anyway when I am left to myself.

“Well,” says he, “we will call them then.” And so those ten are
brought up and they say, “Why yes, we are perfectly satisfied with him.
Why yes, the deliverance that he obtained from his wretchedness is
that which our Lord wrought; the comfort that he had all the way and
that he needed so much is that which our Lord gave. The wealth that
he has, whatever he has, poor as he was, the Lord gave it, and blind,
whatever he sees, it is the Lord that gave it to him. And he sees only
what is the Lord’s. And naked as he was, that garment that he has on,
the Lord gave it to him. The Lord wove it, and it is all divine. It is only
Christ. Why yes, he can come in.”

Here the congregation began singing:--

“Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain: He
washed it white as snow.”

And then brethren, there will come over the gates a voice of
sweetest music, full of the gentleness and compassion of my Savior.
The voice will come from within, “Come in, you blessed of the Lord.”
[Congregation: “Amen.”] “Why do you stand without?” And the gate
will be swung wide open, and we shall have “an abundant entrance into
the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
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 Oh, He is a complete Savior. He is my Savior. My soul mag-
nifies the Lord. My soul shall rejoice in the Lord, brethren tonight.
Oh, I say with David, come and magnify the Lord with me and let us
exalt His name together! He has made complete satisfaction. There is
not anything against us, brethren. The way is clear. The road is open.
The righteousness of Christ satisfies. That is light and love and joy and
eternal excellence.

Isn’t it true, then, of Isaiah 60:1: “Arise, shine, for your light
is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For, behold, the
darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the
Lord shall arise upon you and his glory shall be seen upon you.” Breth-
ren, He can do it. He wants to. Let us let Him. [Congregation: “Amen.”]
And let us praise Him while He is doing it.

Now can’t we praise the Lord? Then everybody in this house

that wants to do it, you just go right ahead now. I will say amen to
every word of it, for my soul magnifies Him too, brethren. My soul
praises Him, too brethren, because He is my Savior. He has completed
the work. He has done His gracious work. He has saved me. He saves
all. Let us thank him forevermore. Professor Prescott: The times of re-
freshing are here brethren. The Spirit of God is here. Open the heart,
open the heart. Open the heart in praise and thanksgiving!

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 CHAPTER TEN
The Name of God

We will begin tonight with the first verse of Revelation 14:”And

I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion and with Him a hun-
dred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in
their foreheads.” This same number is referred to in the 7th chapter
and 4th verse, but I read from the first verse: “And after these things I
saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the
four winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor
on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from
the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud
voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the
sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we
have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the
number of them that were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and
forty and four thousand.”

All we read these two scriptures for, is to get the connection

which shows that the seal of God and the name of God are insepa-
rably connected. The 144,000 had the name of their Father in their
foreheads, and they were sealed with the seal of the living God in their
foreheads.

Then when we find out what the name of God is, we shall know
what the seal of God is. That which will bring to us His name and put
it in our minds, that which will put upon us and in us His name, will
be the seal of God. Now turn to Exodus 3:13, 14. This refers to the time
when the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush. He sent Moses
to deliver the people of God from Egypt: “And Moses said unto God,
behold, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The
God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they shall say to me, What
is His name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I AM
THAT I AM. And he said, “This is what you shall say to the children of
Israel, I AM has sent me to you.” The Lord had said to him so far only
this (as we read in the sixth verse), “I am the God of your father, the
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God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Now Moses asks, “When I come to the children of Israel and

say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you; and they say
to me, What is His name? What shall I say to them? And God said to
Moses, I AM THAT I AM. This is what you should say to the children
of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. God said moreover to Moses, This
is what you should say to the children of Israel, The Lord God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you: this is My name forever, and this is My memorial
to all generations.” But what is His name? “I AM THAT I AM.”

He had said, and they knew, that He was the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” and the God of their fathers.
They knew their fathers had a God whom they worshiped. These folks
had heard of the God of their fathers. They remembered, though dimly
now, the God of their fathers but now he reveals to them that the God
of their fathers is the God whose name is ‘I AM THAT I AM,” and “this
is My name forever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.”

Then the name of God and His memorial also go together. Do

you see that? But, what is His name? Is it “I AM,” only? No. His name
is not simply ‘I AM,” but “I AM” what? “I AM what I AM.” That is the
idea of the word “that” in the sentence. “I AM that which I AM”, or “I
AM what I AM.” Now it is not enough for the Lord to state to men that
“He is”, we need to know “what He is”, for that knowledge to do us any
good.

Just knowing God exists is not enough. It is not enough for us

to know that He exists, but we need to know what He is, and what He
exists for, in respect to us. Therefore, He did not say simply, “’I AM,’ but
“I AM what I AM.” That is His name, and if we will know God truly, we
must know not only that He is, but that He is what He is, and until we
know what He is, we do not really know Him.

The same thought is expressed in Heb. 11:6: “Without faith

it is impossible to please Him (God): for he that comes to God must
believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him.” Well, what is the reward which God gives to those who seek
Him? It is Himself! Himself and all He is and all that He has. But, if we
had all that He has without having Him, what good would that do us?

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 You see, if we had all that He has, and we were still ourselves,
we would be simply supreme (the next thing to devils), would we not?
To give a man all that God has while still remaining the man that he
is, that would be a fearful thing. Therefore, it is nothing to us that God
gives us all that He has, unless He gives us what He is, unless He gives
us Himself.

Therefore, when He gives us what He is (giving us Himself, His

character, His nature and His disposition), then we can use what He is
as well as what He has, in His fear and to His glory. Consequently, the
same thought is there, not only that He is, but He is what He is, and
that “he that comes to God must believe that He is”, and that He is what
He is.

Well then, to follow this thought, what is the first thing God is
to everyone in the universe? [Congregation: “Creator.”] Assuredly! The
first thing that He is to anything, animate or inanimate is Creator; for
by Him all things exist. He is Author of all things. Then the first thing
for men, for angels, or intelligences, is to know Him as Creator. Now
He says, ‘I AM THAT I AM.” Then the first thought that comes to any
creature as to what He is, that is regarding an understanding of His
name, is that He is Creator. Now in connection with His name, we have
found that His memorial stands inseparable. And therefore “this is My
name forever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.”

The Sabbath as a Sign of Christ, our Creator and Redeemer

Turn to Ezekiel 20:20. You are familiar with the scripture: “And
hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that
you may know that I am the Lord your God.” What is the Sabbath a
sign of? A sign that He is the Lord God. But He is not only the Lord
God in point of existence, that is not all there is to His name. It is more
than that. The Sabbath then, being the sign that He is Lord God—is it
not the sign that He is “what” He is, as well as “that” He is? [Congre-
gation: “Yes.”] Now think of that. Is it a sign both of His existence and
also what (who) He is? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”] The Sabbath is the
sign that He is the true God (and He having told us that He is what He

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is), therefore the Sabbath is the sign of “what” God is as well as the sign
“that” He is. See? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Then that being His name, “I AM” what “I AM,” and the Sab-
bath being the sign that He is what He is, don’t you see how that is His
name forever, and that is His memorial forever? Then, He has given
the Sabbath. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” He has giv-
en that as the memorial that He IS the Lord. Consequently, “that is
My name forever.” That is His memorial. [A voice says: “Please repeat
that.”] All right. Let us go back and take the thought at the beginning.
The Sabbath, He says “you shall hallow,” and it will be a sign. Saturday
is not a sign of the true God. Saturday is not anything. A man who
keeps Saturday can do so without knowing the Lord just as He can
keep Sunday without knowing the Lord, but He can’t keep the Sabbath
without knowing the Lord.

There are three classes of people who observe a day in the world:
There are Saturday-keepers, Sunday-keepers, and Sabbath-keepers.
What God wants is Sabbath-keepers. But there has been too many Sat-
urday-keepers pretending to be Sabbath-keepers. That is the mischief
of these last days. “Hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign.” That
is the thing to start with. Then the Sabbath is a sign which He has set
for us, a sign which He Himself has given, “that you may know that I
am the Lord your God.” The Sabbath being the sign that He is the Lord
God, teaches us that He is not only God in point of existence, but He
IS, and HE IS what HE IS, for that is His name. See? “I AM” what “I
AM,” The Lord God. The Sabbath is a sign that He is the Lord God.

The Sabbath therefore, is not only a sign that He is (that He

exists), but also that He is what He is (His character, nature and dis-
position). But His name, He says, is “I AM THAT I AM.” “This is My
name forever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.” What is
the sign that He is what He is? [Congregation: “The Sabbath.”] But He
says, “The Sabbath is My memorial.” “He has made a memorial for His
wonderful works,” and so on. Then, don’t you see that the Sabbath is
the sign that He is what He is (regarding Himself, His character, His
nature and His disposition), and that this is His name and His memo-
rial forever? Now, shall I say it over? [Voice: “No, I can see that.”] Have
you got that now? [Congregation: “Yes sir.”]

Well then, let us go on with the lesson. The Sabbath being the
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sign that “God is” (in point of existence), and that “He is what He is”,
show us that the first thing He is, is our Creator. The first thing that
the Sabbath then must signify is that He is our Creator. But, is that
the only thing that it will signify? No, because He is more than that.
Let’s look at Exodus 31:17: “It is a sign between me and the children of
Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on
the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” Now it is a sign “that you
may know that I am the Lord your God.” In what way is this a sign?
Is it not because, “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on
the seventh day He rested and was refreshed?” It is a sign of creation
because He is the Creator, it is a sign of Himself in the act of creating.
Is that so? [Voice: “Yes.”]

Now put the two together: It is a sign that He is the Lord,

because “in six days” He “made heaven and earth.” Then, as we have
found, the first thing that God is, is our Creator. The first thing that
the Sabbath signifies is that God is our Creator. That signifies what
He is. But the Sabbath commandment is, “Remember the Sabbath day,
to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work: but the
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do
any work. … For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

Now remember the Sabbath day. What is the Sabbath day? As

we have already read in the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel: “A sign that
you may know that I am the Lord.” Remember that thing which signi-
fies that I am God. We are to remember that thing which signifies that
He is God. Then is not the Sabbath the memorial which brings Him
to people’s remembrance? For what is a memorial for, unless it is to
bring something to our remembrance? He wants to be brought to the
remembrance of His creatures and has given the thing which will do it.
And now He tells us “remember the thing which will do it, remember
the memorial.”

Now there is an important thought right there: We are to re-

member the thing (the Sabbath) that brings Him to remembrance,
or in other words, the thing that brings Him to mind. When He is
brought to mind, He is not only brought there as the God who exists,
but as what He is in Himself (His character, nature and disposition).
And when He is brought to our minds for what He is, that is where
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we see His name, is it not? Where is the name? [Congregation: “In the
forehead.”] “With the mind I serve the law of God.” See?

Doesn’t God want to be in people’s minds? And the Sabbath is

that which brings Himself (not a theory of Him, but Himself) to our
remembrance, the Sabbath brings Him to mind, because the Sabbath is
the sign “that I am the Lord your God.” God says, Remember the sign,
remember that which signifies and brings Me to mind. Remember the
sign that brings to mind that I am the Lord your God. And remember,
He is what He is. Remember to bring Him and what He is to your
mind. Remember that He is (He exists) and remember what He is (His
character, nature and disposition). That is the thought. Isn’t that His
memorial?

The very purpose of a memorial and the very object of it, is to

bring the thing that is touched upon into the mind. So you can see with
that being the case, the name of God and His memorial, His Sabbath,
cannot be separated at all. Consequently, when He told Moses that “I
am that I am,” that was to be His name forever. That is His memorial
to all generations. His memorial is what brings God and His character
to mind, it puts God and His real name into the mind. So the Father’s
name in the minds of those people who are mentioned, is the seal of
the living God in their foreheads. The first thing then, that the Sabbath
signifies is that God is Creator, creative power, but that is brought to
mind through the things which are made. It is a sign that He is the
Lord because He made all these things. Consequently, the Sabbath is
the sign and the memorial of the Lord our God as manifested in cre-
ation.

The Creative Power of God Through His Word

Now let us study a moment how He manifested Himself in

creation. Heb. 1:1, 2: “God, who at various times and in different ways
spoke to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us
by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also
He made the worlds.” And the first verses of John: “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

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The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Now
the 14th verse: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

There is another verse we will read right upon the same thing,
which tells it in a different way. The last part of Ephesians 3:9 says:
“God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” God in creation mani-
fested Himself in and through Jesus Christ. Is that so? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] Well then, God in creation can be known only in Jesus Christ.
Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then the man who does not know
Jesus Christ, will he get right ideas of created things, of creation? [Con-
gregation: “No.”] He will not find God there; he will not find the ideas
of God there, because God is manifested in Christ in creation. Now
further: How did God manifest Himself in Christ in creation (or in
creating)? Psalms 33:6, 9 says: “By the word of the Lord were the heav-
ens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” “For
He spoke, and it was; He commanded, and it stood fast.” As soon as He
spoke, the thing was there.

Heb. 11:3 says: “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.” So far, we have found that the
manifestation of God through creation is the first way in which we
can know God. But God is manifested in creating in (through) Jesus
Christ; and God is manifest in creating in Jesus Christ, by His word.
And that word by which He created all things has in it the power to
make a thing appear, which before could not be seen at all, because it
was not there. Understand?

“The worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things

which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” After God
spoke, things appeared that were not there before He spoke. Nobody
could see them. There is power in the word which God in Jesus Christ
speaks that is able to make a thing, that is able to create. In other words,
it is able to produce the thing which He names in the word that He
speaks. That is, God can call those things which are not as though they
were and not lie. A man can speak of those things which are not as
though they were, but there is no power in His word to produce the
thing which He speaks, and consequently He lies.

And there are many people who do that very thing. They speak
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of those things that are not as though they were, but it is a lie. And the
reason that it is a lie, is that there is no power in them or their word to
produce the thing. They would love to have what they are speaking be
real, but it is not so, and yet they speak of it as though it were. It is still a
lie, however much they would like to have it be real. There is no power
in their word to produce the thing desired in their minds when they
speak the word. But God is not such.

When the thought that is in His mind is expressed in a word,

the word produces the thing that was in the thought. The creative ener-
gy, the divine power, is in the word which God speaks. Consequently,
when there were no worlds that appeared at all, God in Jesus Christ
spoke, and there the worlds were and there they are yet, because He
spoke back then.

Now let us read two other verses that also have these thoughts
in them. Not only does the word of God which He speaks produce the
thing that is in the thought, but it keeps that thing in existence after it
is produced and in the place where God wants it, after it is produced. I
want you to see that the word which God shall speak has all that power
in it. Now turn to Col. 1:14. He is speaking of Christ the Son of God,
“in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgive-
ness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of
every creature: for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven
and that are in earth, visible and invisible whether they be thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him
and for Him and He is before all things and by Him all things consist.”
Or by Him all things hold together. But what made them? What made
this world as it is? The power of His word. [Voice: “He commanded
and it stood fast.”] The world is quite large and has a good many vari-
ous ingredients in it, but when He spoke, it came, with all the ingredi-
ents in it. The word then that produced it, holds it together in the shape
that it is.

Well then, the other thought is in the third verse of Hebrews

and the first chapter: “In the past, God spoke in different ways and
at various times to the fathers through the prophets. But in these last
days He has spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all
things, and by Him he made the worlds. The Son is the brightness of
his glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things
by the word of his power.” What holds these up since they were made?
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[Congregation: “The word of His power.”]

Has he been compelled to keep on talking since He spoke that

first time, in order to keep these things in place? [Congregation: “No.”]
Is it necessary that He should keep on talking to the world every day, to
hold it together? [Congregation: “No.”] Is it necessary that He should
keep on talking all the time to the worlds and the planets to keep them
in their courses and in their places? No. The word which produced
them in the beginning has in it, the creative power which holds them
together and holds them up.

2 Peter 3:1-7 says: “This second epistle, beloved, I now write

unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remem-
brance; that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken be-
fore by the holy prophets.” Mindful of what? The words which were
spoken before by the holy prophets. Why are we to remember them?
Because He wants us to find out what those words are worth. He wants
us to remember the words, in order to obtain the strength and the force
of the words in our minds and our lives – because the words which
were spoken by the prophets were the words of God, which they spoke
by “the Spirit of Christ which was in them, when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.”

Being mindful of those words, then, “and of the command-

ment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior: knowing this first, that
there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of ” (that is, people that
talk that way, that all things continue as they were from the beginning,
are willingly ignorant), “that by the word of God the heavens were of
old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby
the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.”

By what did the world overflow with water? [Congregation:

“The word of God.”] God spoke. “But the heavens and the earth which
now exist are, by the same word, kept in store and reserved unto fire.”
What does He call our attention to there, in respect to the word which
he wants us to remember? He wants us to be fully minded of the words
of God, because that word at the first produced the worlds and that
word holds them there. That word brought the flood and that word
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rescued the earth from the flood, and still keeps it from a world-wide
flood. That word that can produce worlds and it can destroy worlds.
It can preserve worlds and it can recover worlds. That is the word He
would have us to keep fully in our mind, that we may know the power
of that word. Well then, you see in all this there is the same thought
still. That word which produced all things also holds all things togeth-
er. It holds all things up and preserves all things, until God speaks
again.

When He speaks again, then everything will go to pieces.

When the day comes in which there comes “a great voice out of the
temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done,’ “ then there are
thunderings and lightnings and voices and an earthquake, such as was
not since men were upon the earth. So mighty an earthquake and so
great, and “every island fled away, and the mountains were not found”;
and the cities of the nations fall; the heaven itself splits open and rolls
away.

I tell you, when that day comes, the man who is fully minded
of the word that does it all is perfectly safe. Because when that word
which produces these things is my confidence, when that word is my
foundation, when that word itself is my trust, why, it makes no differ-
ence if the earth does go, His word remains; that is all right. So then,
God was manifest in Christ by His word in creating and is still manifest
in His created things. He is manifest in creating, in preserving, in hold-
ing all things together, and in holding all things up, so that gravitation
is God in Jesus Christ. Science tells us that the law of gravitation holds
things up, you know; but what really is gravitation? “Why, gravitation
is what holds things up.”

There is a better answer than that. That answer is that grav-

itation (the law of gravitation), holds all these things up and in their
places. But what really is gravitation? It is the power of God manifest-
ed in Jesus Christ in creation; that is gravitation! In science, the word
cohesion means “to hold together”. But what is cohesion? All the an-
swer that science can give is that the word “cohesion” is from two Latin
words, “co” and “haerere”, signifying “to hold together”.

In other words, cohesion is cohesion. That is the answer. But

there is a better answer than that. There is God’s answer, and He tells
us that cohesion is the power of God manifested in Jesus Christ in cre-
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ation. For it is by Him that all things consist, cohere and hold together.
That is cohesion. The origin of all things is not spontaneous generation
and it is not evolution. It is God manifest, the power of God mani-
fested in Jesus Christ by His word producing all things that are seen,
which before did not appear at all. God in Jesus Christ is the origin
of all things. That is creation. God in Jesus Christ is the preserver of
all things. That is cohesion. God in Jesus Christ is the upholder of all
things. That is gravitation!

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161
 CHAPTER ELEVEN
True Sabbath Rest

We will begin just where we stopped last night. The thought

we wanted to dwell upon particularly last night, was to find God in
Christ in His word in creation; in creating, preserving, holding togeth-
er and holding up, all things. Six days He employed in creating, and
then the record is (Gen. 2:1-3): “Thus the heavens and the earth were
finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended
His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which
God created and made.” And this made it the Sabbath day for man;
but the thought still before us is that the Sabbath is the sign that He is
what He is, in creating, and in everything else that He is. At the same
time, however, that statement; “everything else that He is”, is found in
the fact that He is Creator.

Then, when He had finished creating, He rested and was re-

freshed. That is, He took delight in the reflection in the created things,
of the thought of His mind and the completion of the purpose, as it
was manifested in the finished creation. That is the thought in the
word “refreshed” in Exodus 31:17. Six days He employed in making
the heavens and the earth, and “the seventh day He rested and was
refreshed,” He took delight, He rejoiced in His completed purpose in
the creation. He rejoiced in that purpose that was in His mind before
creation was spoken into existence.

Then He blessed the day, made it holy and sanctified it. There-
fore the commandment tells us: “Remember the Sabbath day,” that is,
the rest day, “to keep it holy; six days you shall labor, and do all your
work: But the seventh day is the” rest--”the Sabbath”--the rest “of the
Lord thy God.” Whose rest is it? [Congregation: “God’s.”] Whose rest
is it then that we should take and enjoy on the Sabbath day? [Congre-
gation: “God’s.”]

Then the man who takes his own rest and enjoys his own rest
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and not the Lord’s rest, does he keep the Sabbath? [Congregation:
“No.”] He keeps Saturday, doesn’t he? [Congregation: “Yes.”] A man
who takes his own rest on Saturday, even though he enjoys his rest on
that day is not keeping the Sabbath, the Lord’s rest. Even though he
enjoys it, he keeps Saturday only and not the Sabbath.

The man who receives and enjoys the Lord’s rest on the sev-
enth day, he keeps the Sabbath, because it is God’s rest that he keeps.
That is what he does. It is God’s rest day. “Six days you shall labor, and
do all your work: But the seventh day is the” rest of the LORD your
God, not your own rest. It is His; His rest, and when we remember the
rest day, whose rest day is it we remember? Ours or His? [Congrega-
tion: “The Lord’s.”]

Yes, it is the Lord’s. It is altogether God’s rest, and the idea

of God’s rest in the thought of the Sabbath commandment and the
reasons that are given in the commandment are the same. We are to
work six days. The reason is because the Lord in making heaven and
earth, worked six days and rested the seventh. And we are to rest the
seventh day, because the Lord rested, and blessed it, and sanctified it and
hallowed it.

What kind of rest was that (or is that), which is in the seventh
day? [Congregation: “Refreshing.”] Whose refreshing? [Congregation:
“God’s.”] What is God? [Congregation: “Spirit.”] God is Spirit. The
only kind of rest which He could possibly have is spiritual rest. Thus
the man who does not obtain and enjoy spiritual rest in the seventh
day does not keep the Sabbath, because Sabbath rest is spiritual rest; it
is God’s rest, and that alone.

It is spiritual rest, and the sabbath is a spiritual thing, and God’s

rest is in the day; His spiritual rest is in the day. And by observing the
day by faith--”spiritual things are spiritually discerned”. By observing
the day by faith, that spiritual rest comes to him who observes the
Sabbath. That spiritual rest which God put into the day, which became
a part of the day, that spiritual rest which is there, comes to a man and
is enjoyed and known by him who keeps the Sabbath in the only way
it can be kept, by faith in Jesus.

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 The Blessing, Holiness and Sanctification coming from the Sabbath

Then He blessed the day – the blessing of God is also in the

day. The rest of God is in the day and the joy that we have found, the
refreshing, the delighting, the joy of the Lord is also in the day. The
blessing of the Lord is in it, too; for He blessed the day. Now, is that
blessing in the day yet? [Congregation: “Yes.”] If a man does not ob-
serve it or pays no attention to it, is the blessing in it? [Congregation:
“Yes.”]

Yet it does not reach the man, if he does not believe. Now the
thought we had last night—the force of the word of God—the word of
God, which spoke the worlds into existence, what effect does it have
on the worlds and has it had since that day? [Congregation: “It up-
holds them.”] That word that He spoke then, keeps the worlds together
and in their courses ever since. How long will it do so? [Congregation:
“Forever.”] “The word of our God abides forever.”

Now there is the word of God, that He blessed the seventh

day. What is the effect of that blessing which, away back there, He put
upon the day? It is still there and it will always be there, because to all
eternity it will be a fact that God did bless the seventh day, and that He
Himself cannot contradict, you see. He Himself cannot say that He did
not bless the seventh day, for He says He did. Even if He should blot
out the whole of creation, it would still be a fact that He blessed the
seventh day when it was there. Wouldn’t it? [Congregation: “Yes.”]
Then that is settled. Through all eternity, it will remain a fact that God
did bless the seventh day. And just as long as it remains a fact that
He did it, so long will it remain a fact that the blessing of God is in it
and so long it will remain a fact that the man who observes it as only
the Sabbath can be observed—by faith in Jesus—that man will get the
blessing of God out of it and enjoy it as such.

Referring to the first chapter of Genesis, there we read in the

twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth verses: “God created man in his
own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female cre-
ated he them. And God blessed them.” What day was that? [Congre-
gation: “The sixth day.”] Then God blessed the man before He blessed
the seventh day. That is settled, is it not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Now is

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it as much of a certainty that He blessed the day as it is that He blessed
the man? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Is the blessing with which He blessed
the day, as real as the blessing with which He blessed the man? [Con-
gregation: “Just the same.”]

It is just as real. What was the blessing? Whose blessing was

it that He put upon the man? [Congregation: “The blessing of God.”]
Whose blessing did He put upon the day? [Congregation: “God’s
blessing.”] Well then, when that blessed man came to that blessed day,
did he receive additional blessing in the day beyond what he had pre-
viously? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Then the Sabbath was intended to bring to the man (who was
already blessed of God with spiritual blessings) some additional spir-
itual blessings? Well, is that so still? [Congregation: “Yes.”] “The word
of God lives and abides forever.” It is still so now. Well then, He made
the day holy. But what made the day holy? Now I need not go through
the texts on this; you have had these in Brother Prescott’s talk Sabbath
before last. What was it that made the day holy? [Congregation: “The
presence of God.”]

The presence of God makes things holy. It makes a place holy.

It makes a man holy. The presence of God made the day holy. The
holiness of God is attached to the day. The presence of God, the holy
presence of God, is attached to the seventh or Sabbath day. Well then,
when the man comes to that day, as only man can come to it, spiritual-
ly-minded—with the mind of the Spirit of God—and receives the spir-
itual rest, the spiritual refreshing that is in it, the spiritual blessing that
is in it, does he not also receive that presence and become a partaker
of that presence, in which is the holiness of God to transform him? He
does indeed. And that is true Sabbath-keeping.

Well then, He sanctified the day, but I need not rehearse those
texts either. What is it that sanctifies? [Congregation: “The presence of
God.”] Then the presence of God, His sanctifying power is in the sev-
enth day. Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Thus, the man who comes
to the Sabbath of the Lord according to the Lord’s idea of the Sabbath
and according to His intent obtains spiritual rest. He finds that there.
He finds spiritual refreshing, delight; and he finds spiritual blessing.
He finds the presence of God and the holiness which that presence
brings to transform him. He also finds God’s sanctifying power to
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sanctify him in that day, for God’s presence is there.

For what purpose was all this done? Why was the sabbath
made? [Congregation: “For man.”] It was made for man. Well then,
God rested and put His spiritual rest upon the day for man, did He
not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] God’s refreshing and His rejoicing is in
that day for man. The blessing with which He blessed it was there for
man. The holiness which His presence brought to it, and which His
presence gave to it, was there for man. His presence, which sanctified
it, was there for man.

Well then, was not the Sabbath created so that man, through
the Sabbath, might be a partaker of His presence and be made ac-
quainted by living experience with the spiritual rest of God, the spiri-
tual blessing, the holiness, the presence of God to make him holy and
the presence of God to sanctify him? Is not that what God intended
the Sabbath to bring to man? Well, the man who gets all that in the
Sabbath is the man who is a Sabbath-keeper. And he knows it too. He
knows it and he is delighted to know it.

Now another thing: Who was the real present agent in creat-
ing? [Congregation: “Christ.”] Who was it that rested? [Congregation:
“Christ.”] Who was refreshed? [Congregation: “Christ.”] Who bless-
ed? [Congregation: “Christ.”] Whose presence made it holy? [Con-
gregation: “Christ’s”] Whose presence is in the day? [Congregation:
“Christ’s.”] Then the man whom the presence of Jesus Christ does not
sanctify, and does not make holy and does not bless and to whom it
does not bring rest, why, he can’t keep the Sabbath. Don’t you see that
it is only with Christ in the man that the Sabbath can be kept, because
the Sabbath brings with it and has in it the presence of Christ?

So you see when God set up the Sabbath, He had set creation
all before man to start with and man could see God in creation. But
the Lord wanted to get nearer to man than that. Man could study cre-
ation and find a knowledge about God. But God wanted him to have
the knowledge of God. In creation he could know about Him. In the
Sabbath he would know Him, because the Sabbath brings the living
presence, the sanctifying presence, the hallowing presence of Jesus
Christ, to the man who observes it indeed.

Therefore we see the creation was before man and he could

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study God in creation and thus know about him. But God came nearer
than that and set up that which signifies that God is what He is, and
when the man would find what God is there, then he would not only
know about Him from the created things, but would know Him in
Himself.

Sabbath as a Sign of Creative Power

So then, the original purpose of God in creation and the Sab-

bath as the sign of it, was that man might know God as He is and
what He is, to the world in and through Jesus Christ. Is not that so?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] Do you see that? [Congregation: “Yes.”] What
is it for now, then? [Congregation: “The same.”] Now another thought
here. The Sabbath was thus made at the end of creation and the real
thing that made creation week. The Sabbath then was a sign of the
power of God manifested in Jesus Christ and the sign of a finished
creation—the sign of God as manifested in Jesus Christ in a completed
and finished creation.

He saw all that He had made in the five days and behold it
was good, but when it comes to the sixth day, He saw all things, and
behold it was very good. Gen. 1:31. And His purpose stood complet-
ed. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them,” and there they were, the expression of the thought that was in
His mind, that word expressed when He spoke them into existence.
Then the Sabbath--the sign “that I am the Lord your God,” because in
six days He made heaven and earth and on the seventh day He rested
and was refreshed--is the sign of the finished and completed work of
God in creation.

Now let us go on from that. Did man at that time, in the gar-
den of Eden, standing as God made him, know all of God that he ever
could know? [Congregation: “No.”] Then as each Sabbath day came, it
would bring to him additional knowledge and presence of God. But
who is this? [Congregation: “Christ.”] Additional knowledge and pres-
ence of Christ in Himself. Then if he had remained faithful, he would
still have grown in the knowledge of God, in himself, in his own expe-

167
rience, growing more and more in all that the nature of God is. But he
didn’t stay there. He didn’t remain faithful. The creation was complet-
ed as God finished it, and all the host of them, and they were according
to His own mind. That is so. But Satan came in and swung man and all
this world clear out of God’s purpose entirely. Didn’t he? [Congrega-
tion: “Yes.”] He reversed God’s order, so that, where God was reflected
to man’s mind in all things above and in man himself before, now Sa-
tan is reflected in man. That puts a blur upon the reflection of God in
anything, so that the natural man does not see God, even in nature.

Well then, when Satan had swung this out of God’s purpose,
and turned it about and reversed God’s order, the Lord did not leave
it there. He said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your seed and her seed.” That broke the power of Satan over
man to that extent that it released him from total depravity and set
him free to find God. But in whom was that done? [Congregation:
“Christ.”] Christ again. God in Christ wants to bring man and the
world back again into His original purpose. And was it not the same
power in Christ and by the same means—His word—that He would
bring back men and the world into His purpose, that produced them
in the first place? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

It was God in Christ, by His word, that produced the world

and man, in the first place. Now Satan has taken it all away from God
and turned it contrary to God’s purpose. Now it is God in Christ, by
His word, that brings men and the world back into His purpose. Then
is not the work of salvation simply the power of God in a similar way
in which brought all things to existence in the first place? In other
words, is not salvation creation? Assuredly.

Now another thought on that to see it still more plainly, if need

be. Is God’s original purpose in creation completed now? [Congre-
gation: “No.”] It was completed, but is it now? [Congregation: “No.”]
No sir. When the salvation of mankind is completed, will His original
purpose then be completed? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Then what is the
work of salvation but God’s carrying out and completing His original
purpose in creation? [Voices: It is the same thing.”] “My Father works
hitherto and I work.” Then what can the work of salvation be but the
original work of creation? The same God in the same Son, by the same
means, to accomplish the same purpose. Well then, isn’t the sign of
this work in salvation the same as the sign of that work in creation? To
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be sure it is.

Then the Sabbath of the Lord is just as certainly the sign of the
creative power of God manifested in Jesus Christ through His word,
in the salvation of my soul as it was in the making of this world in
the first place. But God is revealed everywhere in Christ, in all places,
you see. That is the thought before us continually. Then His name is I
AM WHAT I AM. But what He is can be known only in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, to men, to all intents and purposes, to men in this world,
Jesus Christ is God Himself and what God is, isn’t He? [Congregation:
“Yes.”]

Salvation and Creation are One

I say for all intents and purposes (not that it is making them
one or identical or the same individual), but as no man can know the
Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him, no man
can know God except as He is revealed in Jesus Christ. Consequently,
to man, Christ is God and all that He can know of God is in Christ.
Therefore Christ becomes practically, for all intents and purposes,
God to us. God also said when Christ was born, He is “God with us.”

Well then, the Sabbath is the sign that He is the Lord our God.
But it is the sign that He is what He is. Then Christ being God to us,
is not the Sabbath the sign of what Jesus Christ is to the man who
believes in Him. [Congregation: “Yes.”] At creation, it was the sign of
what Jesus Christ is in creation. And now as Christ has to carry on
His own work in salvation, in order through this means to finish His
original purpose in creation, the Sabbath is the same sign of the same
creative power, in the same one, Jesus Christ.

So, it is still the same thing right along. Only now the power is
manifested in a different way from what it was before, because of the
reversal of the order, but it is the same creative power from the same
Person in the same One by the same means, and accomplishing the
same purpose. Therefore, the same sign is the only one that ever could
be attached to it. You cannot have any other sign of it. It is impossible.
So it is literally true that the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, the
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blessed seventh day, is God’s own sign of what Jesus Christ is to the
man who believes in Jesus Christ.

Now let us study that a little further. “All have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God.” “The wages of sin is death; there-
fore death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.” All are dead. Is
that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”] They are all gone out of the way. They
are gone from God’s original purpose entirely. What is the first thing
that Jesus Christ is to the man who believes in Him? [Congregation:
“Creator.”] “Created anew in Christ Jesus.” The very first thing God in
Christ is to the sinner is still Creator, because God speaks and he lives.
By the word of God, we live. And “we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we
should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10. Then God made man to walk in good
works, but man walked the other way. Now, in Christ, God brings man
up to the place where He started him. So, salvation is only the accom-
plishing of the original purpose of God in Christ in creation.

Therefore, “if any man be in Christ he is a new creature.” The

first thing that Christ is to anybody and the first thing that God is to
anybody (to the sinner) in this world is Creator, making him a new
creature. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; renew a right spirit
within me.” Then the work of God in salvation is creation. Well, when
we have thus found Jesus Christ as our Creator and been made new
in Him, then what is the first thing we find in Jesus? [Congregation:
“Rest.”] Yes, rest, of course. And there is the first thing that He did in
the beginning. He rested.

Sabbath and Spiritual Rest and Blessing

So, the first thing we find in the manifestation of His power

in us is rest. What kind of rest? [Congregation: “Spiritual rest.”] That
is the invitation: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.” Then He says, “I am with you.” I am with you.
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” And when He spoke to Moses
in the wilderness, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you
rest.” What does His presence give? [Congregation: “Rest.”]

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 And when that man has become a new creature in Christ and
finds that rest, what then does He do? [Voice: “Works the works of
God.”] No. He rejoices first, and he goes to work rejoicing. What did
God do? Rejoiced. What does the man do? He rejoices in the purpose
of God accomplished in himself. But is that all the rejoicing there is?
No. “I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner
that repents, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need
no repentance.”

Then God rejoices again in the rest which He gives to us and

which we obtain in Him. Again, He is refreshed and again, He delights
in His people. Well then, the next thing that belongs to the Sabbath
day and the next thing that belongs all through this is blessing. The last
verse of Acts, third chapter says: “Unto you first, God, having raised up
His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away from every one
of you from his iniquities.” Then Christ is a blessing to the sinner, isn’t
He? He is a blessing to the man who believes in Him. But further: That
text that we have studied here so deliciously says, (Eph. 1:3); “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” God has
given to us all the spiritual blessings He has. They are given to us in
Christ, though.

The Sabbath, however, brings to us spiritual blessing. Where

did the Sabbath get the spiritual blessing? [Congregation: “From
Christ.”] Yes, from Jesus Christ. Then, in the matter of spiritual bless-
ing which the Sabbath brings to us, it brings it to us from Jesus Christ
only and through Jesus Christ only. So, in that respect, the Sabbath
is a channel through which spiritual blessing flows from Jesus Christ
to the people of God. That is a fact; because all spiritual blessings are
given to us in Christ. The Sabbath has the spiritual blessing of God in
it, and therefore it being a spiritual blessing, it could not get it in any
other place or way than from Jesus Christ. Consequently, the Sabbath
is one of those links that Brother Prescott referred to a while ago that
binds us to Christ, that we may have spiritual blessing.

Then further: “My presence shall go with you.” His presence

makes the person holy wherever he is. And further, another thought
that comes to the same point in another way. “I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to ev-
eryone that believes.” What is the gospel? [Congregation: “The power
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of God.”] What is manifested in Christ? [Congregation: “The power of
God.”] What is manifested in the gospel? [Congregation: “The power
of God.”] To what purpose? [Voice: “Creation.”] But the power of God
unto salvation is the same power in the creation. It is the power of God
in both places.

Then whatever the sign of the power of God is in one place,

it is the sign of the power of God in every place and in every way, be-
cause it is the power of God alone all the time, and you cannot set the
power of God against the power of God. So, you do not need any other
sign of the manifestation of the power of God. You cannot have it; it is
impossible.

Well then, the gospel is the “power of God unto salvation,”

and the gospel is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Then the man who
believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ, Christ dwells in him. Christ’s
presence is there, and Christ’s presence makes holy. That is what made
the Sabbath holy. Then the Sabbath, in the point of the matter of ho-
liness, is exactly the sign of what Christ is to the man who believes in
Him. Further, the presence of Christ sanctifies. Then in sanctification,
the Sabbath is the sign of what Christ is to the believer. Don’t you see?
So, to the believer in Jesus, God in Christ creates anew. To him, God
is rest, refreshing, delight, rejoicing, blessing, holiness, sanctification.
That is what Christ is to the believer, but that is what He was to the
Sabbath long ago, for the believer.

He made the Sabbath for man, as we found at creation. He

made it there at creation so that the man, even if he had remained
faithful to God and had never sinned at all, would have the sign of
what God was to man in Jesus Christ, and to have the presence of
Christ in the man. And now, in the new creation it is the same thing.
In the work of salvation, it is the same thing.

Then another thing – Christ is made unto us wisdom, righ-

teousness, sanctification, and redemption. He is our sanctification. He
sent Paul to preach the gospel, you remember. To preach to the Gen-
tiles, “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and
from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of
sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is
in Me.” But sanctification and its ultimate purpose, its ultimate accom-
plished purpose, is the complete work of Christ finished in the indi-
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vidual. The purpose is for the image of Christ to be completely formed
in the believer, so that when Christ looks upon the believer, He sees
Himself. That is so. That is sanctification.

The Spirit of prophecy has defined sanctification for us in

these words: “Sanctification is the keeping of all the commandments
of God.” It is not trying to keep them, or doing our best to keep them.
It is the keeping of all the commandments of God. No man will be able
to keep (the kind of commandment keeping God endorses and ex-
pects) all the commandments in whom Jesus Christ is not completely
formed within, in whom His own image impressed there. But when
He looks upon that man (the one who has His very own image), He
sees Himself. That is so.

Now the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ is that which

makes us righteous, that which saves us, that which sanctifies us, and
that which is all in all to us. When we have obtained that righteous-
ness, and that righteousness is there according to righteousness (God’s
idea of righteousness), what is it then that witnesses to the righteous-
ness of God in the believer in Jesus? [Congregation: “The law.”] The
law of God. But here is the progressive work of Christ growing up in
the individual—the work of sanctification, or the work of sanctifying.
That is the thought here—the work of sanctification or sanctifying. It
is the growth of Christ in the individual. When Christ has grown to
the fulness there, then that is the completed work of sanctification.

What is the sign that God sanctifies? [Congregation: “The

Sabbath.”] What is the sign then, that the presence of Christ is sancti-
fying the individual? [Congregation: “The Sabbath.”] When the work
is completed, what will witness to that? [Congregation: “The law.”]
What part of the law particularly? [Congregation: “The fourth com-
mandment.”] The whole law will witness to the completed work of the
righteousness of God in a man, but especially the Sabbath will stand as
God’s sign of that completed work.

It is the sign of a completed work at creation, isn’t it? But when

that was undone and God’s order reversed, then the Lord had to carry
on His work through this means in order to finish that original pur-
pose of creation. Then the Sabbath stands there in this finished work
of God in salvation, at the pinnacle of the law itself. It stands as the
witness of the sanctification completed, so that as the Sabbath is the
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sign of the completed work of God in the original creation, it is also
the sign of a completed work in this “secondary creation”, which is the
carrying out of the original purpose of creation.

The Sabbath as a Sign of What Christ is to the Believer

Now here is another thought. Since the Sabbath is the sign

of what Christ is to the believer, will the believer know fully what the
Sabbath is until he knows fully what Christ is? [Congregation: “No.”]
So then when the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ has absorbed all of
the mind itself, then the Sabbath will be also known fully to the mind
itself. But the Sabbath is the sign of what God is in Christ, and when
that is brought fully to the mind itself, that can be nothing else but the
image of God and the name of God in the mind of the believer. That
can be nothing else than the seal of the living God, and that through
the Sabbath of the Lord.

Well then, you see at every step of the way and with every line
of thought, it brings us only face to face with that truth. It is the truth
that the Sabbath as it is in Jesus Christ, and as the believer in Jesus
observes it, that alone is the seal of the living God. Saturday keeping
is not the seal of God. Christ, as He is reflected in and through the
Sabbath of the Lord and received in the mind and heart of the believer,
with the living image of God completed in the believer, that is the seal
of the living God. Then there is written in the foreheads of that people
the name of the Father.

Now see it here also. Turn to Numbers 6:23-27: “Speak unto

Aaron and unto his sons, saying, This is the way you shall bless the
children of Israel. Say to them, The Lord bless you, and keep you: the
Lord make his face shine upon you: the Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace. And they shall put my name upon the
children of Israel, and I will bless them.” Now that is the blessing which
the high priest spoke when the Day of Atonement was over. When the
work of atonement was finished and the priest come out of the tem-
ple to sanctify and bless the people, that is the blessing. And in that
blessing what did he put upon them? He “shall put my name upon the

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children of Israel.” The judgment was passed, and they were secure.
That was in the figure or the type.

Now turn to Rev. 3:9-12: “Behold, I will make them of the syn-
agogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not but do lie; behold,
I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know
that I have loved you. Because you have kept the word of my patience,
I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come
upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I
come quickly: hold fast what you have, that no man may take your
crown.”

That message was the message that was given when the Day of
Atonement began, was it not – our antitypical Day of Atonement? That
was fulfilled when the Day of Atonement began. Now we read that:
“Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God,
and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of
my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem,
which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon
him my new name.” Then when the name of God is completed in the
mind, then His work of atonement is finished and He will pronounce
it so. This must be so, for when God is there in the believer and in the
Sabbath, it is the sign of a finished work in sanctification.

Now in Isaiah 58:13, 14 we read: “If you turn away your foot
from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call
the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor
him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor
speaking your own words: then you shall delight yourself in the” Sab-
bath? [Congregation: “No. ‘Delight yourself in the Lord.’”] Why not in
the Sabbath? Doesn’t it say you are to call the Sabbath a delight? That
you are to call it the holy of the Lord and honorable? Not doing your
own ways. Then why not delight yourself in the Sabbath? Ah, there is
that meaning there, you see. If you truly delight yourself in the Sab-
bath, then you delight yourself in the Lord, because the Sabbath is the
sign of what the Lord is to the man.

Therefore, he put that just right. When you do that with re-
spect to the Sabbath, then you will delight yourself in the Lord, be-
cause it is the sign of what the Lord will be to you, and what you will
be to the Lord. Well then, I want to know how in the world anybody
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is going to compromise with any other rival institution when only the
Sabbath can be the sign of what Christ is to him? The man to whom the
Sabbath is the sign of what Christ is to him, will he be asking whether
he shall work or not on Sunday, the rival day? [Congregation: “No
sir.”]

Why, no! He will know well enough that whether he works on

Sunday or not has nothing to do with it. He knows he cannot compro-
mise and have half of Christ and half of something else, which is the
best that Sunday could offer. Besides this, Christ is all in all, and the
Sabbath is the sign of what Christ is to him. Since Christ is all in all to
him, to suggest anything else is to insult him. Those people who are
asking these questions do not know who Christ is anyway. They might
just as well try “keeping” Sunday as not. They are not keeping Sabbath.

But there is the thing. The Sabbath has the living image of
Jesus and the presence of Jesus Christ in it. He put it there. He put it
there for the man, and the man who believes in Jesus Christ can get
it there. In addition to the blessing he has of the Lord already, when
he comes to the Sabbath day, he gets an additional blessing from the
Lord. It doesn’t matter how much of the presence of Christ is with him,
when he comes to the Sabbath day, an additional presence of Christ
comes to him and he knows it.

It doesn’t matter how much of the rest of the Lord he is enjoy-

ing, when he comes to the Sabbath, which is the sign of what Christ is
to the believer, and has the presence of Christ in it, it brings to him ad-
ditional rest in the Lord. No difference how much holiness of Christ he
has in him, when he comes to the Sabbath, more holiness is revealed
in him from observing the Sabbath in the fear of Christ and by faith in
Him. No difference, though he be completely sanctified and all of self
is gone and none but Christ is there, even then, when he comes to the
Sabbath day, in the depths of eternity it will reveal to him still more of
the wonderful knowledge and the sanctifying growing power there is
in Jesus Christ to the man who believes in Him.

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177
 CHAPTER TWELVE
Confidence in Christ as Redeemer, for He is Creator

We will take up the thought tonight just where it was left last
night. The thought was that the work of God in salvation is the same
as the work of God in carrying out His original purpose in creation,
because as stated then, at the completion of the creation of the heavens
and the earth and all the host of them, God’s finished purpose stood
there, in which He took delight. Yet through the deception of Satan,
this world was swung clear out of His creative purpose and turned to
the opposite.

Therefore, in order to complete His purpose, He has to gather

from this world a people who will fill the earth when made new, as it
would have been filled if it had never fallen in His original purpose.
And when that is accomplished through this word of salvation, the
power of God in salvation – that will be the real finishing indeed, the
real accomplishment of His original purpose in making this world with
all things. Then there will be a completed universe, when everything
that is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and
all that in them is are saying, “Blessing and honor and power be unto
Him that sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever.”

Therefore, the Savior, when He was here, said, “My Father is

working until now and I am working.” God’s work was finished when
the seventh day began of old. He then rested. But His work on this
earth and forming man here was undone, so that he had to set to work
again in the work of salvation to complete His original purpose. It is
for this reason Jesus says, “My Father is working until now, and I am
working.” Now I will read three passages in the Old Testament and
three in the New and you can multiply them just as far as you please. I
will especially read from the 40th chapter of Isaiah and onward. There
it shows that the basis for our confidence in His power to accomplish
our salvation, is founded in His power as Creator revealed in His cre-
ation.

Turn first to Psalm 111:4: “He has made his wonderful works
to be remembered.” The revised version, the Hebrew, Jewish, and oth-
178
ers give it: “He has made a memorial for His wondrous works.” That is
what we have been talking about. That is the first part of the verse, and
now the latter part: “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.” His
wonderful works, then, are signified in the memorial which He has
established, and are attached (right there in this verse) to His gracious-
ness and His fullness of compassion for man in this world, who needs
it so much.

Now the 40th chapter of Isaiah – and you can follow on

through, even to the end of the book of Isaiah – and you will see it
all the way through. I will begin with the first verse, which is, you re-
member, “Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your God. Speak
comfortably to Jerusalem.” The margin reads: “Speak to the heart of Je-
rusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished and that her
iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the Lord’s hand double for
all her sins. The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the
way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
That is the message of John the Baptist.

“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill

shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the
rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all
flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The
voice said, cry. And he said, “What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and
the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withers,
the flower fades; because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it; surely the
people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our
God shall stand forever.”

Peter also quoted that text in the last two verses of the first
chapter of 1st Peter: “And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you.” He is quoting this from Isaiah, that “the word of our God
shall stand forever,” and he says, “This is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you.” Then Isaiah goes right on and speaks in other
words of the gospel: “O Zion, that brings good tidings, get thee up into
the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your
voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand
and His arm shall rule for Him: behold His reward is with Him, and
His work before Him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: He shall
gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gen-
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tly lead those that are with young.”

Now that is the gospel. Up to that point, he is teaching the

gospel by the word of God. Now read: “Who has measured the waters
in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and
comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the
mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” Who did that? The
same One who comes and says, “I will tenderly lead like a shepherd
those who are Mine” – the same whose Word now speaks to us in the
gospel and lives forever.

“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counsel-
lor has taught Him? With whom took he counsel and who instructed
Him and taught Him the path of judgment and taught Him knowledge
and shewed to Him the way of understanding? Behold the nations are
as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance:
Behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not
sufficient to burn, or the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him
less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will you liken God? or
what likeness will ye compare unto Him?”

Now skip to the 25th verse: “To whom then will you liken
Me, or shall I be equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high,
and behold who has created these things, that brings out their host by
number: He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for
that He is strong in power; not one fails.” Not one gets away. “Not one
fails,” the text says. They are all kept: but what keeps them in place?
[Congregation: “The power of His word.”] He upholds “all things by
the word of His power.” Now He tells us to look up and see who created
all these things and “brings out their host by number.” He “brings out
their host” how? [Congregation: “’By number.’”] Well then, what is that
verse there for?

God Will Never Forget You

Now then, the 27th verse: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and why
do you speak, O Israel, saying that My way is hid from the Lord, and
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my judgment is passed over from my God? Look up to the heavens
and see who made all these things, and He calls out their host by num-
ber and not one fails. Now Jacob, why are you saying that God has
forgotten you? What do you get discouraged for? Why do you think
He has forgotten you? Why, He does not forget any of the planets in
the universe; He knows them all by their names. Is He going to forget
your name? What are these two things put there together for? [Voice:
“For our comfort.”] They are put together because the same One who
created all these things is the one who comforted Israel. The One who
knows all these things is the One that gives you and me our new name.

Now the twenty-eighth verse: “Have you not known? Have you
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of
the earth, does not faint and is not weary? There is no searching of His
understanding. He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no
might He increases their strength.” Who does it? [Congregation: “The
Lord.”] Well, lift up your eyes and see who created all these things, and
see that He has power to give to the faint. He has power for the faint by
His word, so He says, “Be of good cheer. Be of good courage.” It is so.
For when He spoke to Daniel, “Be strong,” Daniel said, “I am strong,
for You have strengthened me.”

Now we read the remainder of the chapter: “Even the youth

shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail: but they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount
up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall
walk and not be faint.” This is true because the power that keeps the
planets in their courses and in one place—that same power will be with
the weak and the faint, and so they can “run, and not be weary,” and
they can “walk and not faint.” Then don’t you see that the Lord puts the
creation and His power in creation as the foundation of our hope in
His salvation? Then isn’t it all one?

There is another blessed verse that touches so intimately upon

everybody. I read it principally for that purpose. It is found in the
147th Psalm, the 3rd and 4th verses: “He heals the broken in heart, and
binds up their wounds. He tells the number of the stars; he calls them
all by their names.” The One who can tell the number of the stars and
call them all by their names, He is the One who binds up and heals the
broken hearts – He binds up their wounds. Well then, have you been
wounded in spirit, broken-hearted and almost in despair and thought
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everything and everybody had forgotten you? Why, just remember the
very next verse. The thought connected with it is this; He not only
“heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds,” but He tells the
number of the stars and He calls them all by their names and He will
not forget your name. That is the Lord. That is our Savior, but the foun-
dation of our confidence in Him as Savior is that He created all these
things, knows all their names, and holds them up by the word of His
power—and that powerful word saves.

God Created All Things by Jesus Christ

Now reading hurriedly in the New Testament, you remember

that scripture in the first chapter of John: “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was
made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” And the 14th
verse: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us . . . full of
grace and truth.” “And of His fullness have all we received, and grace
for grace.”

Then that One who created all things came here Himself, “full
of grace and truth” – flesh like ourselves, and through Him we are par-
takers of His fullness. Don’t you see then, that the only thought that
God would want us to have about salvation is that He who created us
saves us! He would have us know that the power by which He created
is the power by which He saves. He would have us know that the means
by which He created (His word) is the very means by which He saves.
This was His word: “unto you is the word of this salvation sent.”

Ephesians 3 speaks of the gospel, beginning with the 7th verse

and ending with verse 12: “whereof I was made a minister, according
to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of
His power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints this grace
is given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the
mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God,
who created all things by Jesus Christ.” Now, what was he to preach?

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“The unsearchable riches of Christ” and to make men see what is the
mystery, that is, “in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.”

Then the gospel is to bring men to understand God’s purpose

when He started out to create in the first place. Don’t you see then, that
if the gospel were teaching something other thing than the original
creation, its teaching would not bring the hearers to understand His
original purpose in creating all things by Jesus Christ? That is what
it was designed for and that is what emphasizes its importance to us.
It shows that God’s purpose in the gospel is to reveal to men—men
who have lost the knowledge of it—His original purpose in creating all
things by Jesus Christ.

So we read on: “to the intent that now unto the principalities
and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church
the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which
He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” But we read in another place
that He purposed that before the world began. He would have to, if it
was an eternal purpose. Then, in Christ, in the salvation of this world
and men, and the working of Christ in it, God is carrying out His eter-
nal purpose that He began at the beginning. “In whom (in Christ) we
have boldness with confidence by the faith of Him.”

Let us read that eternal purpose again: “According to the eter-

nal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Then, that
original creating purpose that we spoke of last night that was in Christ,
and the carrying out of it that was frustrated, is Christ. Then it was
Christ back there, and it is Christ now. It is Christ all the time and it
is the power of God in Christ all the way. It is the power of God man-
ifested in the word all the way for the accomplishment of His purpose
at the beginning, and the accomplishment of that purpose at the close.

Satan came in and swung the world off in a crooked way. The
Lord says, “All right, we will carry it out that way.” Satan didn’t do any-
thing. He swung the world off and so it has gone on as it were, in a little
by-way, and God will carry the thing through in that by-way, and ac-
complish His eternal purpose so that it will astonish the universe and
destroy the devil. It will do it.

The same thing is in Colossians 1, beginning with the 9th

verse. I will read hurriedly from the 9th to the 17th verse: “For this

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cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you
and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding: That you might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing, being faithful in every good work, and
increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might, ac-
cording to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with
joyfulness: Giving thanks unto the Father, which has qualified us to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who has delivered
us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption through His blood,
even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the
Firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that
are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were
created by Him and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him
all things consist.” Creation, salvation, the blessing of God, and His
grace, and deliverance from the power of darkness. It is really all one
story--the creative power of God, and God in Jesus Christ.

The Sign of the Creative Power of God in Christ to Save

The first chapter of Hebrews has it all throughout. It is all

through the Bible. Now then the thought—we do not need to dwell
any further upon the thought that salvation is creation and is given as
a sign signifying creative power manifested in Jesus Christ. The only
way that that power is manifested at all is in Jesus Christ; the only way
we can know God is in Him. Now He has set up that sign to signify the
creative power of God in Jesus Christ, and whether that creative power
be in the original creation, or in the work of salvation to carry out that
original purpose in creation, it does not make a difference – it is all
the same power, the same purpose, by the same One, in the same way,
and by the same means and the same sign signifying all in all, in all its
bearings and workings.

Now then if you have another sign set up to signify the work
of salvation, other than that which God has set up, will that other sign
signify the power of God and the salvation that is expected? [Congre-

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gation: “No.”] Now think carefully of this. God set up a sign to signify
His power and His working everywhere and in every way, in Christ
Jesus. If you or anybody else sets up another sign, it cannot signify the
power of God, because it is some other one than God that sets it up.
Then it is impossible to signify the power of God by any other thing or
any other sign. Is that so? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Further, if anybody should find anywhere in history, another

thing set up to signify salvation, it would signify salvation by another
power, other than the power of God in Jesus Christ. It would have to.
Well, has there been any effort ever made in history by any other pow-
er to save people, apart from Jesus Christ? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Has
there not arisen in the world a power called antichrist? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] “Anti” is against or opposed to Christ. That power does pro-
pose to save people, doesn’t it? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Let us read the
description of what it does in the first place: “Who opposes and exalts
himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as
God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2 Thess.
2:4.

Daniel 8:25 also says: “He shall also stand up against the
Prince of princes.” He shall “stand up” to reign, to rule, and to show
forth his power “against,” (opposed to), “the Prince of princes.” Who is
the Prince of princes? [Congregation: “Christ.”] He stands up against
Him; he will reign; he will exercise his power, manifest his work, in op-
position to Christ. Take the eleventh verse. “Yea, he magnified himself
even to the Prince of the host.” But the margin reads, “He magnified
himself against the Prince of the host of heaven,” because the previous
verse shows it is the host of heaven. Then, as Paul says, he exalted him-
self, opposed and exalted himself above all that is called God and that
is worshiped. He magnified himself and exalted himself against the
Prince of the host.

What power is that? [Congregation: “The Papacy.”] That pow-

er is the papacy, the church, the Catholic church, the Church of Rome.
Now is it not the doctrine of that church that there is no salvation any-
where else? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Doesn’t their doctrine say that there
is no salvation by any other means other than that church? Then that is
settled, isn’t it? As to what they believe? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Further,
that church, the power opposed to Christ, that exalts and sets up itself
as the way of salvation, is itself opposed to Christ. And yet that church
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says there is no other way of salvation than itself. Then, is it not plain
that if the papacy is going to have any sign to signify its power to save,
that it has must be a different one than the Sabbath? That is settled.

The False Sign of Salvation

Now then, another thought, as the papacy’s sign must be a sign

other than the Sabbath, which is the sign of the power of God in Jesus
Christ in salvation. If any other power sets up a sign to show and sig-
nify its power unto salvation, would it not have to be, in the nature of
things, a rival sabbath? It would have to be that. There is no room for
anything else. If they would set up anything else as a sign, then the sign
that God has set up would stand alone and distinct in the world. God’s
sign would take precedence of it and there would be no rivalry at all.

Therefore, to make the rivalry complete, and to make his pow-

er manifest in opposition to Christ, the man of sin has to have a sign of
his power unto salvation that is a rival to the true sign of the salvation
in Christ. It has to be that. And the Church of Rome makes no pretense
to anything else. It makes no pretension to anything else than that the
Sunday, which it has set up, is the sign of the power of the church to
command men under sin into the way of salvation. That is settled. That
is the object of it. That is what it has started out to do, and that is what
it did.

Now when the Sunday was set up and enforced upon the peo-
ple by the power of an earthly government, it made (for all practical
purposes) the living papacy, as it exists in the world. When it was done,
Sunday was put in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord as the result of
a direct and definite purpose. That was done. Here is the record, stated
by one of the men who did it. On page 313 of Two Republics, we read as
follows: “All things whatsoever that it was a duty to do on the Sabbath,
these we have transferred to the Lord’s day” (Eusebius).

Then the law was there to enforce the observance of Sunday

and what was the purpose of that? From Two Republics, p. 315, I read:
“Our emperor, ever beloved by Him, who derives the source of im-
perial authority from above, and is strong in the power of his sacred
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title, has controlled the empire of the world for a long period of years.
Again, that Preserver of the universe orders these heavens and earth
and the celestial kingdom, consistently with his Father’s will. Even
so, our emperor whom he loves, by bringing those whom he rules on
earth to the only begotten Word and Savior, renders them fit subjects of
his kingdom” (Eusebius).

Then the purpose was to save people by that means, and the
Sunday was put there as the sign of the power that was doing it. It was
put there instead of the Sabbath of the Lord, which signifies the Lord’s
power to do it. I read further from page 316: “He commanded too, that
one day should be regarded as a special occasion for religious worship.”
(Ibid). And again, “Who else has commanded the nations inhabiting
the continents and islands of this mighty globe to assemble weekly on
the Lord’s day and to observe it as a festival, not indeed for the pam-
pering of the body, but for the comfort and invigoration of the soul by
instruction in divine truth? (Eusebius).

That is all it was set up for, to take the place of God and to take
the place of the Sabbath of the Lord. It is appropriate enough that it
should do so, because, as we have found, if there is going to be another
power that is going to claim to save men, it has got to have its own sign
to signify its power. It belongs there. That made the papacy what it is.
It is foundational to the government of their church, and (according to
them), made the church the channel of salvation by absolute earthly
power and compelled men into that way. Now we have read of the
doctrine of the church here. We have read of the doctrine of the church
of Rome in regards to the way that men must be saved, and it was alto-
gether by man’s self. It was altogether the power of self alone that could
save.

That is not the salvation of Christ. Her doctrines are that a

man must fit himself and make himself good enough by himself. Then
the Lord would take him and make a regular bargain with him. “If
you will do so and so, then I will be good to you.” That is the record
itself there in that book (the Two Republics). I have not time to read it
tonight. Her doctrine is that a man must do that, but there is not power
in him to do it, and that is their argument. If he does it, then he gains
all. But that is not the salvation of Christ. That is not the salvation of
God. Beyond this, now the professed Protestant churches of the United
States have taken that same course and have also exalted Sunday, the
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day that they place in this government, as the Catholic church did in
the Roman empire years ago. And they have done it for the same pur-
pose also.

Further than this, these professed Protestant churches know

that there is no commandment given for Sunday. They themselves say
that. They say that it began with the primitive church. I do not care how
far back they claim to get it in the primitive church. If it be a church
institution or a church ordinance that the church commands men to
perform, it is the same thing. It is the same evil thing. Any church that
would attempt to do it, becomes in the nature of the attempt, an apos-
tate church.

Trace it to the days of the apostles if you want to. You see there
that the church that did it is, in the nature of things, an apostate church,
attempting to save itself and others without the power of God. There-
fore, whatever church did it, it is in the nature of things a fallen church,
because it is not the church’s office in the world to command men. The
church’s office in the world is to obey God and not to command men.

The Effort to Replace the Sabbath

Any church, therefore, that presumes to command men is, at

the very motion of it, an apostate church. The church that obeys God
is the church of God. God commands; His is the power. His is the au-
thority. He used the church, that through it He may reflect His power
and His glory unto men. But the church has no right to command
anybody. It obeys God alone, too. Now I will put that in another way
or state it a little more plainly. It is not the church’s place to command
anybody, and it is not the church’s place to obey anybody, but God
only. Now look at that a little further. The church as a whole—Cath-
olic and apostate Protestant—has already put herself in the place of
Jesus Christ. Any church that exalts herself and makes herself the way
of salvation is, in that thing, an apostate church and puts herself in the
place of Jesus Christ, who is the Savior – don’t you see?

Then no church can exalt herself as a savior of men. She may

exalt Jesus Christ as the Savior of men, and Jesus Christ in her as the
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Savior of men, but not herself, because it is the same with the church
as with individuals. I have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I have the
presence of Jesus Christ dwelling in me. That is the word of the indi-
vidual Christian, but the individual Christian cannot say, “I am the
Savior.”

The individual Christian cannot say “I am righteousness,” or

that “I am good and have goodness to bestow upon others that may be
saved.” No, the Christian can say, “I have the righteousness of Christ.
Christ dwells in me and sends in me and through me His blessed pur-
pose in reaching others and saving them. But He is the Savior. He is the
righteousness. He is the power. He is all and in all.”

As with the individual, so with the collection of individuals.

As Christ dwells in the individual, so he dwells in the collection of in-
dividuals, and in an additional sense, beyond that which He dwells in
the individual. The righteousness of Christ in the collection of individ-
uals is only the idea of the righteousness of Christ in a greater measure,
if anything could be, upon the collection of individuals which is the
church. As Christ in the individual works through the individual to
save, so Christ in the church works through the whole church to save.
But if the church grows proud and thinks she is above all, and begins
to give herself credit for her glory and her power to save, she, in that
moment, puts herself in the place of Jesus Christ as the Savior.

That is the same self-exaltation in the church that there is in

the individual, and it was the self-exaltation in the individuals that
made the self-exalted church and brought on the apostasy. Now then,
that is the church putting herself forth as the way of salvation and as
the Savior indeed. She puts herself forth as the only channel of salva-
tion and that all must be saved by the way she lays down. She has thus
exalted herself against God and against the Prince of the host, against
Jesus Christ, and set up that sign of her power to save against the sign
which God has set up. As we have also found, she did it with the direct
intent and purpose of putting it in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord.

Also, in the second apostate church (which has come in this

land), she has done the same thing. She has by a direct act of the gov-
ernment of the United States (as a congressional action), put the Sun-
day institution (the sign of the power of the Church of Rome to save
men), in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord. The professed Protestant
189
churches have, by a direct congressional act in this land, put that in the
place of the Sabbath of the Lord. So that both mother and daughters
have put the Sabbath of the Lord out of the way and have put the Cath-
olic church’s sign of salvation in its place.

Now let us see what that amounts to. What have we found the
Sabbath is? The Sabbath, as we have found by every consideration, is
the sign of what Jesus Christ is to the believer. It is the sign of what
God in Jesus Christ is to men. It has in it the presence, the blessing, the
spirit, the refreshing, and the presence of Christ which makes the man
holy and sanctifies him. It has in it the presence of Jesus Christ, and the
man who keeps it by faith in Jesus has the presence of Jesus. As each
Sabbath day comes, he finds the additional presence of Jesus.

Then when that apostate church put the Sabbath out of the
way, and put her own sign in its place, did she put out of the way the
day only? [Voice: “She put Christ out of the way.”] Was not that putting
Jesus Christ away from the minds and lives of men? When the apostate
daughters have done the same thing in our land, before our very eyes,
have they not also put away the presence and the power of Christ, and
thus taken Him away from the knowledge of men and from the lives of
men? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Now it seems to me that there is a point
there worth our consideration, as to why it is that no progress has been
made in the Christian profession in the ages that are past, at least not
in the way Christ always intended that progress in the Christian life
should be made.

What did God put into the life of man when He made him?
Even if he had remained faithful and never sinned, what did God put
there to carry him on in the everlasting progress of the knowledge of
God? Let me ask it over again now. When God made man at the be-
ginning and put him here upon the earth to live, if man had remained
faithful forever and had never sinned, was there anything that God had
put there and attached to him that would carry him on in an everlast-
ing progress in the knowledge of God in his own heart’s experience?
[Voice: “The Sabbath.”]

Didn’t we read it last night over and over? Didn’t He put Him-
self, His name, His living presence, His sanctifying power, into the Sab-
bath day, and give that to man? Even though he was already blessed
and glorified, when the blessed man came to that blessed day, didn’t
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he receive an additional blessing? Is that not so? [Congregation: “Yes.”]
Then has not God put into the world something that will, if observed, if
kept as God chooses and intends, be something that will keep man and
carry him onward in a channel of growth and progress in the knowl-
edge of Jesus Christ? What is that? [Congregation: “the Sabbath.”]

It is there since man fell. Now then, when the Church of Rome
took the Sabbath away from the minds of men, when they took away
that by which Christ and His converting power might be brought to
man’s recognition—was there anything there to carry them forward
in the sanctifying work of Christ? That is the secret you see, why each
church, starting out in the knowledge of God, came to a standstill in
regard to salvation and righteousness by faith. Then another church
had to rise up and do the same thing and come to a standstill. But now
we come to this – the everlasting gospel is to be preached again and a
church is to rise up again at the last, which has that sign which brings
the living presence of Jesus Christ to men. A church is to rise up with
the sign that will bring this progressive work unto a completion. That
is the church that has the Sabbath of the Lord, and the church which
has the Sabbath of the Lord is brought to that completed work in the
salvation of Christ.

Then who can measure, who but the mind of God could pos-
sibly measure the iniquity and the evil that has been done to the world
by the fearful thing that the apostate church has done? None but the
mind of God can comprehend the mischief and the loss that has been
wrought in the world by doing that. Well then, the effect of that was to
take away the presence of Christ. It was to take Christ away from the
knowledge and the heart’s experience of men and to put another. It
was to put a human power, a satanic power – to put self, in the place of
God and in the place of Christ, the One who emptied Himself that God
might appear.

Now here is a historical parallel so apt and so perfect that I will

read it. First, mankind altogether as men, without any church at all, are
subject to God. Can they exist without Him? [Congregation: “No.”] If
any man by his own act could indeed become independent of God,
could he exist? [Congregation: “No.”] What did Satan start out to do in
the first place? Was it not to become independent of God, self-existent?
If he could have accomplished his purpose, what would it have been?
[Voice: “His destruction.”] That was bound to be so, because he could
191
not exist without Him who created him, but in his wild ambition and
in his intense all-absorbing selfishness, he thought he could live with-
out God who created him.

Is not that the same thought in this self-exaltation that has put
itself in the place of God? Well, whether it be man as man, or men
professedly as Christians organized into a church, they are equally de-
pendent upon God and God in Jesus Christ, and they are subject to
the law of God. The law of God is the supreme law. The law of God is
the government of His whole universe, and everybody on the earth is
subject to that law.

Now see the parallel: About two hundred and sixty years ago
Ireland had Home Rule (self-government), and she is trying to get it
back now. She had a Parliament of her own, governing her own inter-
nal affairs, the affairs of Ireland, but she was subject to the supreme
government in England. Now I read from the fifth volume of Macau-
lay’s History of England, page 301 of this particular edition, chapter 23.
However, if you have other editions, you can still find it in that same
chapter.

Now notice: “The Irish Lords and Commons had presumed

not only to re-enact an English Act passed expressly for the purpose of
binding them, but to re-enact it with alterations. The alterations were
indeed small, but the alterations even of a letter was tantamount to a
declaration of independence.” Now is the law of God enacted to bind
the church as well as every other man? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Has that
apostate church presumed to alter that law? [Congregation: “Yes.”] The
alteration of it in a single letter would be what? [Voice: “A declaration
of independence.”] She has altered it more than a single letter, in the
actual thought and in the very idea, in the very thing that reveals and
brings the presence of God above every other part of the law. She has
taken God out of it and voted for self-rule like Ireland. Then what has
she done? [Congregation: “Put herself there.”] She has established her
own independence of God and proclaimed it to the world.

The professedly Protestant churches are not Protestant any

longer. They have drawn the Congress of the United States into the
same identical position. They have drawn the Congress of the United
States into a re-enactment of the fourth commandment, haven’t they?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] It was quoted bodily and put upon the statute
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book of legislation.

Gov. Pattison, the other day in Pennsylvania when speaking

in the capitol of that State, argued in behalf of Sunday laws that are
already on the statute books, and said that this law is only a part of
that system of the law of God which is “re-enacted” in the statutes of
Pennsylvania. He says that the law of God is there “re-enacted.”

But did they re-enact the law of God as it is? [Congregation:

“No.”] To do that and to undertake to enforce it, would put themselves
on an equality with God, but they-re-enacted it with alterations, and
that puts them above God. The churches of this nation also have pro-
claimed themselves independent of God in the act which they have
taken in setting up God’s law and then deliberately altering it in the
course of the legislation in which it was set up.

Let me read another sentence from Macaulay’s History of

England, from the same page as before: “The colony in Ireland was
therefore emphatically a dependency; a dependency not merely by the
common law of the realm, but by the nature of things. It was absurd
for a community to claim independence which could not cease to be
dependent, without ceasing to exist.”

The Three Apostasies

Was there ever a more complete parallel on earth to illustrate

this principle than this incident which occurred there and was record-
ed for our instruction? That also was in the realm of government and
government law. Now a thought – Jesus Christ came into the world
Himself, didn’t He? [Congregation: “Yes.”] He made the Sabbath Him-
self, didn’t He? [Congregation: “Yes.”] He was Lord of the Sabbath
Himself, wasn’t He? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

He knew and He alone, the true idea of the Sabbath, didn’t He?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] Yet he did things on the Sabbath, carrying out
the true idea of the Sabbath, which did not suit the ideas of the priests
and Pharisees and the politicians of that day, didn’t He? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] And that stirred up their hatred against Him. The thing that
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stirred up their hatred against Him was, more than anything else, the
thought that He disregarded their ideas of the Sabbath. Isn’t that so?
[Congregation: “Yes.”] And their hatred put Him out of the world for
that very reason more than any other under the sun, that He disagreed
with their ideas of the Sabbath. They did it. They hated Him and put
Him out of the world.

In the fourth century there was another apostate church dis-

agreeing with God’s idea of the Sabbath, and they put the Sabbath and
Him with it, out of their minds and out of the world as far as their pow-
er could go. The priests and rulers of old put Him out of the world, but
He came back again. They could put Him out, only so far as their pow-
er was concerned and that was all. Here is another apostate church, a
third one, following the example of the other two apostates which have
gone before. It has put Him and His Sabbath out of the world because
their ideas of the Sabbath disagreed with His, and they will not submit
to His. That is a fact and you know that is a fact.

In order that that original apostate church might accomplish

her purpose of putting Him out of the world and thus maintain their
ideas of what the Sabbath is, they joined themselves to an earthly pow-
er. They joined themselves to Caesar and turned their backs upon God.
That was done. In the second apostasy of the church, she also joined
herself to Caesar that she might accomplish her purpose of putting
God and His Sabbath out of the world. In the third apostasy, in order
that these also may carry their idea of the Sabbath against Christ’s idea
of the Sabbath, they must put Him and His Sabbath out of the way. But
in order to accomplish it, they must join themselves again to the pow-
ers of earth, again to Caesar, as the others did before them.

In the first apostasy, they joined themselves to Caesar in order

to get rid of God and sustain their own ideas of what the Sabbath is
against Him and His ideas. The result of that was accomplished by a
mere minority, a very small minority. In fact, it was so small that they
did not dare to let the people know what they were doing for fear they
would rescue Him out of their hands entirely. That minority, small as
it was, was composed most largely and was led entirely by leaders of
the church. These leaders of the church by their threats compelled the
representative of Caesar’s authority to yield to their ideas and execute
their will. You know they did it. It has been recorded, and that was the
utter ruin of that nation, wasn’t it? [Congregation: “Yes.”]
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 Is it possible then for a minority, a very small minority, led by
a minority of the church managers—but the leading ones—to take a
course that will ruin the nation of which they are a part of? [Congrega-
tion: “Yes.”] When we come to the second apostasy, they did the same
things again by trading off their influence to worldly power, and by this
means to obtain governmental power to accomplish their purpose of
putting Christ and His Sabbath out of their way, and maintaining their
own ideas of the Sabbath against His. That was done by the minority; it
was done by chief leaders of the church, and but a few at that.

What was the result of that intrigue to the empire of Rome? It

was its utter ruin. Then is it possible that a minority, a very small mi-
nority, insignificant as compared with the great mass—led though, by
a few of the church prelates—I say, is it possible for such a few as that
to establish such a system of things and take such a course and put the
government into such a course of work as will prove its utter ruin? That
has been demonstrated twice in history.

Then in this land last year, before your eyes and mine, a mi-
nority of the people of this country, led by a few (a minority only of
the church leaders), did by their threats bring the politicians to sur-
render the power of government into their hands to accomplish their
purpose of sustaining their ideas of the Sabbath against Christ’s idea of
the Sabbath. It has been demonstrated twice in history that such an act
as this has ruined the nation in which it was done. Does that double
demonstration mean anything in the third instance? [Congregation:
“Yes.”] The lesson that is taught in both instances will be felt in the
third instance. That is what it means. Ruin and nothing but ruin can
come out of it. They themselves cannot prevent it. It cannot be stopped.
They have set in motion a train of circumstances that nothing in the
universe can stop. That is fixed.

Now this Congress (1893) is about to expire. It is altogether

likely from the whole situation that it will expire without touching
the question further. If the next Congress should repeal it outright, it
would not affect the situation and the results. That thing has started
and it will go on in spite of everything they can ever do. You and I need
not be surprised that if it is not repealed by the next Congress, that it
will be repealed someday. And when that day comes, then let every
Sabbath-keeper on the earth rise up with all the vigor that the Spirit of
God can give him and cut loose from everything on earth, and put it
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into the cause of God. For in but a little while the tide will swing back
and take everyone and everything with it to ruin. You and I need not
be surprised when that day comes. When it comes, we will know the
meaning of it.

But those who have not had an experience in the cause of God
will mistake the meaning of it, and they will say to you, “We told you
all the time that you were making too much out of that. There was
nothing in it.” And so, they will settle back, but when the tide swings
back, they are caught in ruin. Let not your minds and your hearts be
deceived by anything of that kind, even though it should come twice.
You should believe it now. Believe what is being said here. Study it for
your lives, for your lives are in it. Bear in mind what that which has
been done means -- what these two previous lessons have taught us
will come to pass. It will cause utter ruin, though there might be re-
peals once or twice.

The tide is set, and the result of that tide will follow, in spite of
anything that the universe can do. Then, it makes no difference what
a man tells you –you tell him that you know better. No difference if
Congress undoes it. You tell them that this is the surest reason that the
thing is much nearer than ever, and put your whole soul into it. If he
laughs at you, God has promised that the day will come that you will
laugh and he will mourn. It is dangerous business.

Christ at the Center of the Sabbath

Well then, these are some of the things. The question as to

whether the Sabbath (the seventh day), the Sabbath of the Lord is the
day, or Sunday is the day, has considerable meaning in it. It means
more than anyone on the earth has yet dreamed, unless taken person-
ally into the counsels of God. Further than that, let us look at it. We
have found that the Sabbath is the sign of the power of God in Jesus
Christ, working the salvation of men. We have found that the Sabbath
brings by itself and in itself the presence of Jesus Christ into the living
experience of a man as nothing else can, and keeps it there. That is a
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fact. If you have not found it out in your own experience, believe it,
and you will find it in your own experience. Everyone may know who
will believe.

Well then, we have found that the attempt in changing the day,
was to take the Lord away from the knowledge of man. That has been
demonstrated. Now upon that question then, as to whether the sev-
enth day is the Sabbath of the Lord or not, hangs man’s salvation. That
is settled. Upon that question hangs their salvation or their destruction
now. There are instances of that kind. Let us turn and read it, and with
that thought we will close for this time. Acts 25:19, 20: “But had cer-
tain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus,
which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. And because I doubt-
ed of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to
Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters.”

That was a great question to make such an uproar about – as

to whether a man was dead or alive. Here the whole Jewish nation was
stirred up against one of their own people, and all the question that
was involved was as to whether one was dead or alive. That is all that
Festus saw in it. But you and I know that upon whether that person
was dead or alive depends the salvation or the perdition of this whole
world. You know that is so. And the same thing is asked today. “What
is the use of all this stir about whether it is Saturday or Sunday, about
the keeping of the day? Why, it is only a day anyhow. What is the use
of getting up a new sect (a new denomination) and making a great
stir? What is the use of making all that stir about it, whether Sunday is
the Sabbath or another day—whether we rest on one day or another?
Never mind as to whether that day is the Sabbath or not.”

Upon that decision by men as individuals and as bodies, de-

pends the salvation or the destruction of this earth today. That’s settled.
Whether that day is the Sabbath of the Lord or not – upon that hangs
the salvation of men today as it did back there in that day. Those peo-
ple, in their envy against Christ and determination to maintain their
own idea against God’s idea, got Him out of the world, and then they
got up a controversy as to whether He was dead or alive. So these same
people will put the Sabbath out of the world and then raise up a ques-
tion as to whether it is the Sabbath or not.

They know well enough it is the Sabbath, but like those back
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there, they will maintain their own ideas of the Sabbath against God’s
idea. Though He has unequivocally told them then that He is Lord of
the Sabbath and that the salvation of all men is dependent upon this
question of the Sabbath of the Lord, just so certainly today on this
question depends the salvation of men. We can say boldly that the sal-
vation of men does depend and hang upon their keeping the Sabbath
of the Lord, because the keeping of the Sabbath of the Lord has the
presence of Jesus Christ in it and His life in it, and man cannot be saved
without it.

So I say again, we may boldly say that the salvation of a man

depends upon his own observance of the Sabbath of the Lord as it is in
Jesus Christ, for that means Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ means the Sab-
bath, and the Sabbath means Jesus Christ. In this day, when men are
enlightened upon it and when the message of the everlasting gospel is
to be preached to the world, when the third angel’s message is to go to
them with Christ in it and the all and all of it, then they that reject the
Sabbath of the Lord are also turning their backs upon Christ, and they
themselves know that there is no salvation in that way.

Haven’t we in our previous study seen that there is nothing

else to preach to men in this world but Jesus Christ and Him alone?
He is the only thing, and haven’t we seen that we are to preach Him in
the face of every earthly consideration, whether it be the consideration
of the protection of earthly powers or the consideration of wealth or
influence of any kind, and indeed life itself? That is the message to the
world. Christ is the message to the world –Christ as made known in
the Sabbath of the Lord, which is “a sign between Me and you, that you
may know that I am the Lord your God,” and My name is “I AM” what
“I AM!”

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