Who controls you? Who tells you what to do? People these days like to say they do their own thing. In a previous chapter we investigated the principle of obedience to the right authority, and we discovered that obedience to that authority brings righteousness. “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness.” Romans 6:16. The context in this next verse makes it clear that we are servants of God. “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Verse 13.
Obedience and authority are not very tasteful words to many people these days. How easily we misunderstand God’s authority and the idea of yielding to authority. We have been told so many times that we must or must not do this and that, and when we discover we are unable to do some of those things we are required to do, we experience great guilt; and we seek to avoid that by avoiding authority. This is a different kind of obedience than most of us think about.
We studied previously that “Obedience is the surrender of the heart to the sovereignty of love.” MB 46. This obedience is not legislated or forced. It is not demanded or exacted. Obedience is the willing surrender of the heart to love.
God asks for our obedience, but He wins our obedience. It is difficult for us to understand that. Most parents and leaders do not win obedience, and we assume that God is like most of us. But He is not. He has a marvelous way of winning our hearts. If Jesus is our Lord, if He reigns through the sovereignty of His love, then He can lead and direct us by His love, and He becomes the Lord our righteousness—the Master and the King of righteousness. True righteousness comes by yielding to the right authority so that He reigns over us. He is the Lord of righteousness in our lives.
Satan knows this better than any of us, and since he is aware that this produces righteousness, he seeks to hinder or impair such a procedure in our lives; and he does this in a most unique way. “For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matthew 24:24. There will be false christs and false authorities who have false laws and directions. A false christ does not come only to the heathen but to the Christian world who anticipate the return of Christ, and he will come as a false authority. People will follow and serve the false authority and therefore be led to unrighteousness, or to a false concept of serving God. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not immune to a false christ. In the early days of my experience, I thought I would be immune, but I no longer believe such a thing. In fact, I think we are very vulnerable to false christs, so much so that it frightens me. Satan is a wise person, and we assume that we cannot be deceived by a false christ. But within the church there exists varying concepts of Jesus, of His life, His law, and His work. Sometimes we make ourselves uniquely vulnerable to the concept of a false christ.
Satan seeks to confuse us as to who the right authority is. Who is the right authority? Whom can we believe? Whom shall we serve? In seeking to counteract obedience to the right authority which leads to righteousness, he will bring many authorities, many voices claiming to speak for God, and many misrepresentations of God.
“And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.” Revelation 13:6. Here we find that someone who claims to speak for God will blaspheme God. Paul described the same power this way: “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4. All of these ideas suggest how Satan has set up other authorities who demand obedience; and they will demand obedience instead of winning it. Around us will be a multitude of authorities presenting a confusing picture as to whom we should serve. All will say, “I serve the Christ,” as though there were no other; when in reality, Jesus predicted there will be many. All claiming to be Christ will say they are the right one, and everyone will obey some Christ or some god, but not necessarily the true God. All will say they are obedient, all will say they are righteous, and all will be content that others are not obedient because they serve a different god. This presents a very confusing picture.
The Bible says that the false christ will blaspheme God. When Jesus forgave the man let down through the roof by his friends, the Jews said he blasphemed God, for He, being a man, made Himself to be God, claiming the rights and prerogatives of God. The Bible teaches that Satan will do this through certain agents and powers in the earth today.
Authority asserts itself through laws and decrees. If you obey those laws and decrees, you become the subject of that authority. We know that Satan has set up a power that will “seek to change times and laws.” Daniel 7:25. He attacks the authority of the Lawgiver and attempts to make the law of no effect. It is prophesied that a decree will go forth where people must worship the image to the beast. “And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Revelation 13:14,15. In all these ways, Satan is manifesting his authority by laws and decrees; and He is most interested in attacking the one commandment that points out the authority of the Lawgiver.
“The Lord commands by the same prophet: ‘Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.’ Isaiah 8:16. The seal of God’s law is found in the fourth commandment. This only, of all the ten, brings to view both the name and the title of the Lawgiver. It declares Him to be the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and thus shows His claim to reverence and worship above all others. Aside from this precept, there is nothing in the Decalogue to show by whose authority the law is given.” GC 452. The fourth commandment is the object of Satan’s wrath and attacks, because he wants to be the authority. He wants to be like God.
The Bible points out in the fourth commandment that the Creator is the Law Giver. The Creator is a unique person, and He gives the Sabbath a unique quality that we as Sabbathkeepers fail to understand very well. “The duty to worship God is based upon the fact that He is the Creator and that to Him all other beings owe their existence. And wherever, in the Bible, His claim to reverence and worship, above the gods of the heathen, is presented, there is sighted the evidence of His creative power.” GC 436,437. Then she lists several texts about why we should worship Him, such as: “O come let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Psalms 95:6. Another text is given that explains why the holy beings in heaven who worship God owe their homage to Him: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things.” Revelation 4:11. God is before all creatures, and thus He is due the honor of our worship.
Then (at the bottom of page 437), Ellen White quotes from a book titled History of the Sabbath written by J. N. Andrew, where he wrote: “The importance of the Sabbath as a memorial of creation is that it keeps ever present the true reason why worship is due to God…The Sabbath therefore lies at the very foundation of divine worship, for it teaches us great truth in a most impressive manner, and no other institution does this. The true ground of divine worship, not that of the seventh day merely, but of all worship, is found the distinction between the Creator and His creatures.”
This has many perspectives as you begin to look at it. Have you spent much time thinking about the fact that you are a creature? Someone before and above all things has created you. This, like the fifth commandment about honoring our parents, is a unique commandment. Because of our parents, we have been born and were sustained in our weakness as little children. Because of them we have had health, food, clothing, protection, and all sorts of things that parents provide for their children. If you like the good life, if you love life, then you will honor your parents. We often think of the present and forget the past, but there could be no present without the past. As I look back as to why I have life and clothing and a home and the blessings of life, I must look back to my parents. Honor and respect them. Why? Because you like your life and health and the other blessings. I know all the problems some have these days with poor parents, but it is still true that life itself has come through them. In a unique way, the Bible points out that God is our Father. He is the source of all life, and He is the provider and sustainer of all that live. All are His. Therefore, in a very unusual way, the Bible says for us to remember this.
There is a comparison found in Isaiah that some may not like, but God found it necessary to be strong and firm in dealing with His people. They had difficulty listening to and heeding His word. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider.” Isaiah 1:1,2. The ones God nourished and kept had rebelled against Him. Animals, as far as they are able to manifest it, have affection for their owners and their providers. When the farmer walks in the barn, the cattle react in a certain way, like a dog that wags his tail. The good master, the one who cares for them, has come. And they obey. He just touches them and they move right over. But they will not obey a stranger.
The Lord wonders how His people, whom He constantly provides for, can constantly rebel. How can they be so unfeeling and insensitive? By creation and redemption, God owns us. He feeds and nourishes us. We think that the supermarket provides us with food, or perhaps the farms. But farmers know that it is not the farm that provides the food. The farmer cannot make it rain or make the sun shine. He cannot keep the all the pests and diseases away. He knows there is One that oversees everything in life, and who keeps the sun rising and the rain coming in due season. Someone who never slumbers or sleeps always provides. As we sense His protection and provision, our hearts respond. He says that if we love Him, then obey like the animals. If you love your Master, obey.
There is another aspect of this creatorship of God. We will give just a brief thought here, and later bring in more to add to it. “Every child lives by the life of his father.” MB 78. We are indebted to our earthly father for his energy. He expends his energy in work, whether it be physical or mental. He gives his talents, his wisdom, his skill and perseverance, that we might have food, a home, clothing, medicine, protection, and all the good things in life. He provides the necessities. By his life, all the children exist. The children live by the life of the father. This is a Biblical concept, and God wants to bless the fathers. We owe much to our mothers for bearing us, but without the father that would not happen.
The quote goes on and branches off into the spiritual: “If you are God’s children, begotten by His Spirit, you live by the life of God. In Christ dwells ‘all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.’ (Colossians 2:9); and the life of Jesus is made manifest ‘in our mortal flesh’ (2 Corinthians 4:11). That life in you will produce the same character and manifest the same works as it did in Him.” The author of the book of Acts wrote that the Lord “giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” Acts 17:25. We His children live by Him and are indebted to Him. He originates and sustains our life.
This spiritual quality is speaking of the new birth, and Paul described it this way: “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24. That new life and new birth is a creation process. The Creator creates in the new birth. It is not evolutionary, or something man inspires or instigates. It is all of God the Creator. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17. A Creator is conducting His business as we become the children of God through the new birth. Only He can do this.
This new creation, or conversion, is the object of Satan’s attack, for it is the heart and soul of righteousness by faith in Christ. Without it we have no righteousness. Satan knows the centrality of conversion and the new life, and he seeks to attack this in a most unusual way. He claims that man cannot keep God’s law (see The Desire of Ages, page 761). When Satan tempted man to sin and Adam fell, he declared that it is impossible to obey God. Far too many today believe that Satan is right—that we cannot keep the law. There are texts and quotes that tell us of our inability, but in Christ we can do all things. Satan leaves Christ out of the picture.
Our heavenly Father intervenes when man has fallen, and by demonstrating His law (or His character), which is love, He comes and loves man. As He loves the fallen man, who is still in the image of God and rightfully the property of our heavenly Father who still claims all mankind as His children, man responds. This is what God is talking about in Isaiah in regard to animals that know and obey their owners. Will the animals respond and obey better than we?
Here is a nice description of the new heart: “The light shining from the cross reveals the love of God. His love is drawing us to Himself [not demanding, not exacting]. If we do not resist this drawing, we shall be led to the foot of the cross in repentance for the sins that have crucified the Saviour. Then the Spirit of God through faith produces a new life in the soul. The thoughts and desires are brought into obedience to the will of Christ. The heart, the mind, are created anew in the image of Him who works in us to subdue all things to Himself. Then the law of God is written in the mind and heart, and we can say with Christ, ‘I delight to do Thy will, O my God.’ Psalm 40:8.” DA 176.
The devil does not want anyone to hear these words, because if God can make a new life in you, you will be brought into harmony with God, and into harmony with His law and character of love. If we respond by loving Him who first loved us, our love is the fulfilling of the law. As you start loving Him, you begin to be righteous—you begin to obey the right authority.
This harmony with God is described by Ellen White. “In the new birth the heart is brought into harmony with God, as it is brought into accord with His law. When this mighty change has taken place in the sinner, he has passed from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, from transgression and rebellion to obedience and loyalty. The old life of alienation from God has ended; the new life of reconciliation, of faith and love, has begun.” GC 468. The devil says we cannot keep the law, but Jesus says that He will love His people, and they will love Him. And when they love Him with all their heart and mind, then they will keep the law, for love is the fulfilling of the law. God seeks to break down the enmity by loving us. The devil seeks to prevent this.
Only the Creator can recreate, and there is only one Creator. The false christ cannot. He can give you a marvelous experience. In fact, you might jump up and down and holler. You might speak in gibberish and get goose bumps all over. You might even do miracles. But that is not conversion. Those things might be related to conversion, or they might not be, but the experience is not conversion. The Bible teaches that conversion is a new heart and a new mind that is brought into harmony with God and His law. It is an experience where we love His law and His way, loving Him supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. There is a vast difference in the two experiences, if you wish to confine it to experiences. One is what the Creator does in us, but the other is vastly different.
Our Father claims us as His, and as we respond to His love, He comes to fashion us like unto Himself. He remakes us and recreates us. The devil does not like us to think about the Creator. In order to prevent that, he gets people to forget the Sabbath, because the Sabbath is a constant reminder of a marvelous Creator who made man in the beginning and makes all good things for man’s blessing. Will He not bless me now? Certainly He will! The devil wants us to forget that. He does not want us to keep the Sabbath holy for that would lead to a new birth, which will lead to obedience and righteousness. The devil in a variety of ways seeks to hinder the remembrance of the Creator who can make all things new in the life as well as in the earth. Satan uniquely attacks this one commandment and puts himself before God. He must attack the law in order to eliminate the Sabbath, and this he does in many ways. For years I thought the devil could not attack the law of Seventh-day Adventists, but a long time ago I discovered he attacked my concepts of God’s law. He perverted the law in my mind. I made the law all “thou shalt nots” and “thou shalts.” I must do or not do something, or else. I made the law a list of demands, and I made the Judgment, where we are judged by the law, a God looking down on me with a microscope looking for every flaw and deviation to see how bad I was, so He can make me burn. Far too many of us have taught that concept of the law and the Judgment. Jesus never understood or taught the law that way.
I would like to suggest that the Judgment is looking to see if we respond to His love. Do we respond to His love or do we rebel against His love? When I see His magnificent love for me, do I in turn love Him supremely and my neighbor as myself? Do I adore Him as a Father and a provider? Or am I rather calloused? The Bible teaches that He will give me a heart of flesh, and how meaningful that symbol is. He will take away the heart of stone—the unfeeling, insensitive, lukewarm, and careless heart. Half of the commandments deal with our feelings for people. It is not trying to avoid telling lies. It is having feelings for people so that I do not want to hurt them. It is not avoiding adultery or coveting. Is my heart concerned for you? Is there any sensitivity there? Do you mean anything to me? Is your life precious to me, as well as to our loving Father? I cannot bear to see your life hurt or see you suffer, whether it is emotional, physical, or spiritual agony. Life is too precious. Our God has such a tender regard for all life, even for the sparrow, as Jesus taught. God has a tender regard for us. The Bible teaches that God’s people will be like Him when He comes—feeling for people, understanding, compassionate, perceptive, and sensitive. I cannot bear to see you suffer. God wants His work conducted like that. And He wants us to let this light of love shine all over the earth, to every human being that they might know the Fatherhood of our God; that they might know our Creator who made all good things for man, and who still wants to make things good for fallen man and restore in him the image of God. He wants the world to see that God is love. This is not a permissive God, but a God of grace who understands.
I discovered years ago that I had a heart of stone when it comes to people. I could say I loved people, but I could think evil thoughts about them. Can you? I could misinterpret their actions. I could have vengeful thoughts, and even hateful thoughts. I could lose my temper with people. I could even figure out ways to get even. The Bible says that this is an unfeeling heart—a heart of stone. The Lords wants to take it away. That is why the nation of Israel could rebel when God brought them up as children and blessed them. It was the heart of stone. He wants to take it away and give us a heart of flesh, a tender and compassionate one. But Satan says he wants us to have a heart of stone that is demanding and exacting, the legislated and forced heart. Do what I say, or else. Satan’s followers will be manifested especially in the death decree when they legislate to take life, and all because others do not think as they think. It worries me when I find in my own heart, and in my church, people who like to legislate such things. I am afraid we have an organizational heart of stone sometimes, and not a heart of flesh. Our Lord is understanding and gracious and long suffering, though not permissive.
In the last days, there will be two kinds of people: those with hearts of stone, and those with hearts of flesh. There will be those who love life and those who destroy life. There will be those who love and adore the Life Giver, and those who have allegiance to the destroyer. And the contrast will be great. Like Jesus, the righteous will pray for those who seek to take their lives, for we cannot bear the thought of them being lost for all eternity. It will break our hearts because they are precious to Him. Jesus will look at those who follow the destroyer and say as He said to the rebellious Jews, “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Matthew 23:37.
Those with hearts of flesh, the feeling and loving people, will manifest the marvelous attributes of the Life Giver, who every day fosters and gives life and cares for it. He has been caring for us a long time. We have been special to Him. Will you respond to all His love and affection? Will you say, “I am wholly Thine, O Lord. Control me with the sovereignty of love. Take over my thoughts and use me according to Thy will. Own me and operate me. Not my will but Thine be done. And all because You are so loving, so understanding, so patient; and because by a miracle of creation, You have given me a new heart that feels—a heart of flesh.”
The Sabbath is at the heart of this controversy because it points out a loving Creator and a loving Father, who claims you, and says to everyone, “Son, give Me your heart. Let Me use you to shed My love to others. I don’t want to dictate. I just love you. Will you submit to My love?”
May God help us to understand in these very confusing times what He is really like and what He is trying to do for everyone of us. And may we have those beautiful, tender hearts that say, “My Jesus, I love Thee. I know Thou art mine. And I am wholly Thine.”