Keeping the Commandments

Foreword

These seven studies were given at the 1897 General Conference meetings from March 2 to March 15. There were also four other studies given before these: two on "The Spirit of 
Prophecy," and two on "The Science of Salvation."

The two studies on "The Spirit of Prophecy" are combined into one, and included in book 8 of the Fragments series, The Holy Spirit. The title of the combined study is "The Testimony of God's Spirit."

The two studies on "The Science of Salvation" are combined into one (with the same title), and included in book 12 of the Fragments series, Thoughts on Education.

Since they were not part of this series, I separated them into their appropriate books.

Frank Zimmerman

Chapter 1 - The First Great Commandment

The Lord has said of this time and of the people who live at this time.

You and I rightly profess to be that people, and we stand where we profess that it can be said of us by the Lord, to the universe.

And it will be a fact, not merely because He says it, but He will say it because it is a fact. That text applies fully to you and me who are here in this house; and the Lord wants it to become a fact now and remain a fact straight along, so that He can proclaim it to all the world and to all the universe continually.

That is what we are to study. We are to study in these lessons, to know whether we keep the commandments of God or not; so that the Lord can say of us: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 14:12)

In keeping the commandments of God, assuredly the first one comes in, and that assuredly we are to keep. And here is His word: "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, Oh Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And 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: this is the first commandment." (Mark 12:29-30)

Now, can the Lord say of you and me in respect to that commandment, "Here are they that keep it"?

• Has the Lord all your heart, so that you have no heart for anything but Him and that which is His?

• Has the Lord all your soul, in a devoted love, so that there is no sentiment of your being that is not His?

• Has the Lord all of your mind, so there is no thought of your mind, no working of your mind, no part of your mind but that is His,-devoted to His service? For with the mind we serve the Lord our God. Not with some of it, not with a part of it, but with all of it. So that you have no mind to devote to, or put upon, anything that is not of God.

• Is all your strength His, so that you have no strength to put anywhere but upon that which is God's, and to His service?

If all this is true of you, then it is truly said of you: "Here are they that keep the commandments." (Revelation 14:12) "The second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:31)

When the love of God is in our hearts, as in the first commandment, it will be easy enough to love our neighbors as ourselves. As was brought out in Brother Kellogg's talk the other day, of that little boy in Chicago who went to a man, a perfect stranger, and said to him: "Do you know that you are the greatest sinner in the world?"

And when the man in surprise asked how that could be, saying that he had never murdered anybody, had never committed any great crime, the little boy said to him: "The greatest commandment 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. Do you do that?"

He answered: "No, I do not. I can't say that I do at all."

The little fellow said: "Well, that is the greatest of the commandments. You are breaking the greatest commandment; then you are the greatest sinner."

The man admitted it, and was led to God and full salvation. That is straight enough: as this is the greatest commandment, he who breaks it is the greatest sinner. Is it you? You and I are professing to keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Are we breaking the first of all the commandments of God? If we are not keeping the greatest, the first, of all the commandments, we are breaking it. If we are breaking this one, we are not keeping the commandments; that is settled. You and I must decide now, and we must decide forever, whether we will serve the Lord with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and with all the strength. It is written:  "The kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:21)

The realm that is within us, is the realm of God; it was so when man was made, but the enemy usurped the place of God; and the Lord set man free again to choose whether God shall have His own place in His own kingdom, or whether the usurper shall have the place of God in God's kingdom. The kingdom that is in you is the Lord's. It is for you to say whether the Lord shall rule there, or whether the enemy shall rule there. And if you do not choose that the Lord shall rule there, you do choose that the enemy shall rule there. It is altogether upon man's choice as to who shall rule. Somebody must rule.

Man was not made to rule himself, independent of God. He was made to be himself with God, and cannot be himself without God. The man was made to stand with God. God's kingdom was within him. God ruled within him. But he started out to have his own way by following Satan. But a man can have his own way only by following God. The kingdom of God is within you. We must choose that God shall take His own place in us, in His own kingdom in our hearts. He will take his place there, and He will rule there when He can have his own place in His own kingdom.

You know with reference to God's kingdom on earth that it shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. The kingdom of God, this kingdom that is to come when the Lord comes, you know is to cover every inch, every particle, of ground that there is in this world. Now the kingdom of God is within you. Does that kingdom inside of you where God rules- does His rule cover every bit of space, every particle of ground in your heart? Does it? That is the question, and these questions are for us in more ways than one. I am simply reading the commandment, and calling your attention to what the commandment says. And this in order that you and I may have our minds and hearts open always to the question, Is it true of us: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, ... with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength?" (Revelation 14:12)

Serving God Where We Are

What your mind is resting upon, what it is studying upon, what it is working at-is God in that thing? Is it for the glory of God? The research that you are making, the studies that you are following, the whole thought of your mind:

• Is it that the image of God may be impressed there?

• Is it to find God more largely in the mind?

• Is it to glorify Him more?

• Is He the first and the all in all, in your intellectual efforts?

• Do you love Him, serve Him with all the mind?

And with all your strength:

• The field that you are plowing, are you plowing it for God?

• The plane that you are shoving, to make smooth a board, are you doing that for God, so that whatever you receive is God's and not your own at all?

• Is your strength so entirely devoted to God that you are working in the cause of God wherever you put your hand?

It has been a prevalent idea that a person needs to cease working at his trade, or whatever he is employed at in manual labor, before he can be a worker in the cause. Many say: "I want to get out of what I am at. I wish I could be out. I wish I could get out of this shop. I would like to be a worker in the cause."

• If you are not a worker in the cause where you are, you will not be a worker in the cause when you get where you want to be.

• If you are not a worker in the cause as you are plowing the field, you would not be a worker in the cause if you were trying to preach in the pulpit.

• If you are a blacksmith, and at the anvil day by day-if you are not a worker in the cause as thoroughly, as heartily, as wholeheartedly, as I am in the pulpit, then you would not be a worker in the cause if you should be distributing tracts somewhere.

There is an example set before us of what mankind may be; and of what every believer in Jesus is to be. The Son of God came to this world to show you and me just what it is to keep the commandments, and just how it is done. And He worked at a trade about six times as long as He preached. Beginning at the age of twelve, when He could begin to work with Joseph at the carpenter's trade, when He could do considerable,-as a twelve-year-old boy can do a great many things assisting a carpenter.

Beginning therefore at the age of twelve, He was baptized and began preaching at about thirty years of age; that makes eighteen years. These years He was working at the carpenter's trade. From the age of thirty to thirty-three and a half, He spent in the public ministry, preaching. So you see it was nearly six times as long that He worked at the carpenter's trade as He did at preaching.

Now was He just as much the Son of God those eighteen years that He worked at the carpenter's trade, as He was the three and a half years when He was engaged in preaching? You know that He was. Was He my Saviour and your Saviour when He was there sawing a board, and making a bench and putting legs in it,--was He just as much my Saviour and your Saviour then, as when He was upon the cross? You know He was. "We shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:10)

Do not forget that it was at the close of these eighteen years, when He came to be baptized, and was baptized, at the beginning of His ministry, and at the close of His carpentry,--it was then that God said: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)

Was He not, then, just as much a worker in the cause those eighteen years, as He was the latter three and a half years? You know He was. Then if you are a carpenter, and a professed believer in Jesus Christ, can you not be a follower of Him? Are you not to be His follower and a worker in the cause just there, as really as though you were in the pulpit? I do not say that you are obliged to remain always a carpenter. He did not. I do not say you will be obliged always to remain a blacksmith or a farmer; but I do say and insist that while you are a carpenter, while you are a blacksmith, while you are a farmer, you are to be a worker in the cause as truly as you shall ever be, wherever you may be.

Thus Jesus has shown to every one of us, what it is to be a Christian, and what our life is to be, at whatever our minds, our hearts, or our hands may be employed. He loved God with all His heart, all His soul, all His mind, and all His strength, when He was a carpenter. When He sawed boards, when He made tables, when He made doors and set them up, it was to the glory of God. God was all in all to Him. When a man came to Him as a carpenter, seeing Him only as a carpenter; not seeing Him the Saviour of the world as such,--when a man came to Him only as a carpenter, and sat down with Him and said: "I want a table made. Will you make it for me?"

And He answered: "What kind of a table do you want?"

And the man described it to Him, and Jesus said: "Yes, I will make it for you."

When Jesus had made the table and carried it on His back to the man's house, and took it into the man's house, and set it down there for the man to use-in all that transaction Jesus was altogether God's. God was in all His actions. In every joint that He made in that table there were no cracks, none were covered up with dust, nothing was covered up, it was an honest table. It was throughout such a table as God could approve.

And when He made the bargain to make the table, He made such a bargain as was honest, such a one as God could look upon and say: "That is an honest bargain."

He did not ask the man to pay more than was justly due for such a piece of work as that. The man asked Him: "Will you make such and such a table?" "I will." "What will you charge for it? what will it cost?"

He would calculate upon it, and He would say to the man: "The lumber will cost so much, and it will take such a length of time to make it, and my work is worth so much. Do you not think so? Do you not think my work for the length of time it will take, will be worth so much?"

And the man would say: "Yes, I do. I think it is worth all that. That is honest. That is a clear bargain."

And when He took the table on His back and took it over there and set it down, the man paid Him what the bargain called for, and God could look down on that whole transaction and say, "That is honest. That is all that anyone can do."

Is that the kind of a carpenter you are? You profess to be a Christian. Is that the kind of a workman you are, whatever you are doing?

Honest, Whole-Hearted Work

Do you love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength? Whatever you do, or are called to do; whatever business you transact with your neighbor, be he heathen or Christian; is it done in such a manner that God can look at it and say: "That is good enough for the kingdom of God."

Because all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, is in it to the glory of God? Are we keepers of the commandments, or not? That is the question. And it is time that we find this out so thoroughly that the Lord can certify in the message that He speaks: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God." (Revelation 14:12)

Now, you can see that this commandment covers the whole ground of everything, and that we cannot touch a single thought in the whole realm of thought that does not come into this text with which we have started. So, then, we must look at everything in our thinking, we must look at everything that our mind is called to, in the light of that scripture, the first of all the commandments.

Everything that we are called to put our hand to, we are to look at it in the light of that greatest of all the commandments. Is it a thing that in the fear of God I can enter with all my heart, and soul, and mind, and strength? If it is not, then do I want to touch it? No. If it is such a thing that I cannot enter upon with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and with God, what then have I to do with it? If God cannot go with me, then I am breaking the commandments. I am not devoting everything to Him. All my strength is nothing if it is engaged in something that He cannot enter, or cannot touch or approve of, or that He cannot accept.

I know that this is straight, but it is Christianity. It is Christianity, and you and I must not be content with one-sixteenth part of anything short of exactly that. We must not allow ourselves to be content for even the shadow of a moment, with anything in this world, less than that everything we enter into, we shall do it with God with us, and then enter into it with all the heart, and all the soul, and all the mind, and all the strength. And I tell you when we come to that, all of us, if all in this house will surrender to Him right now, and will hold fast there, we can't imagine what power of God will be manifested in the world.

Since the Beginning

The great difficulty from the beginning has been that men would not allow God the place in their hearts that belongs to Him. God started man that way, and he turned away to everything else, and shut out God entirely. God set him free from that darkness, set him free to choose, and called him to choose, whether he would love God with all the heart, all the soul, all the mind, and all the strength. He was set free to choose to let God have His place again. But so many chose that the Lord should not have His own place, that the flood swept them off the face of the earth.

Then the Lord started the race again. And the only thing that He asked of each was that he should love the Lord God with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and with all the strength, and his neighbor as himself. That is all He asked of the eight who went into the ark, and who came out of it.

If the first man had loved God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength, no sin could ever have entered. After he had sinned, and the Lord had released him from that thralldom, if Adam and all his children had loved God with all the heart, soul, might, mind, and strength, what would have been the condition of the world? They would have been keeping the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, and righteousness would have covered the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Is It Possible?

Is it possible that this can be fulfilled in man under the bondage of the curse, under the bondage of sinful flesh? Can God so deliver the sinner from the power of sin in the flesh that he can love God with all the heart, soul, might, mind, and strength? Yes. Sin could not have cursed the earth, as it is, even with men under the bondage of the flesh which is sinful, if they had believed in God, and kept the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. That is the truth, for that is Christianity. So, then, all the Lord ever wants in us, all He ever wanted in man since Adam sinned, was and is, that he should keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And 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." (Mark 12:30)

In Romans 1:21, we are told that at the beginning "they knew 
God." Look at this: man in the starting out of his career knew God. Adam knew God to begin with, but did not retain this knowledge. When Adam sinned and was again started, he knew God. When the race again started after the flood, it knew God to begin with; so that mankind have departed from God all the time. The world was so sinful, is so sinful, and will be so sinful, because it knew God and rejected Him, and not because it knew not God. So that the world is not in wickedness because of darkness; the world is in darkness because of wickedness. The world began with light; and that darkness has come in, is because of the choice of men: "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, ... And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." (Romans 1:21-22,2)

Now notice; what first? They knew God; but they did not glorify Him as God; they did not give Him the place in them that belongs to Him. They did not glorify God,-did not reveal Him to man, did not make Him manifest on the earth; for Jesus said: "I have glorified You on the earth," (John 17:4) and He was God manifest in the flesh.
 
The Source of Idolatry

These men who knew God, would not allow God to be manifest in the flesh. They were not thankful. Then they became vain in their imaginations; then their foolish hearts were darkened; then in their darkness they professed to be wise. That wisdom was foolishness, and then they made images. Thus you see that the image that is set before men's eyes, in his idolatry, is only the outward manifestation of idolatry, the outward representation of it. The idolatry is already away down in the heart, and has been working several steps of the way out. Think of it. Where does idolatry begin? In the heart. Where in this course does idolatry begin? When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God; right there they all begin. Then where is there any middle ground between the knowledge of God, and idolatry? Think carefully now. They knew God, and "This is eternal life, that they might know You" (John 17:3)

The knowledge of God did they take to get into idolatry? Only one. Then, how many steps from loving God with all the heart, might, mind, and strength, need to be taken to reach idolatry? Just one. Then if I do not love God with all my heart, and all my soul, and all my mind, and all my strength, what am I? An idolater.

It may be I have no graven image before me. These people did not in the beginning. But they did have an image, a conception, formed in the mind, and when they made their graven image, it was simply a representation to stand before the eyes, of what they already had in the mind.

The first man who made an image had a conception of that in his mind before he made it. The first man who made an image had the conception that it should be his god, and that conception was there before he made the image out of wood or stone. Then that image of stone, that he set before his eyes, was only the outward form which he made to represent to him in that shape what the god was that he already had in his mind. Then did he not have a god before he made that graven image? Yes. Where was it? In his heart. "They ... became vain in their imaginations." (Romans 1:21)

Whose imaginations? Their own. Here is that man who is imagining something; he makes an image of his imagining, and sets it before his eyes outside of him. Imagining is simply mental imageing. And the image in stone is but the tangible form of the imageing in the heart. Where was the image first made? In his mind; in his own imagining, in his own thinking. But who was there when he had separated from God? None but Satan and himself. Then, whence can his thoughts come? From himself and Satan only.

So then, you see plainly enough that idolatry is in the heart; the conception, the image, is already there before the image can appear outside. Though his god be the sun, moon, or stars, this conception, his idea, his imagining, is there before he puts it into outward form in the sun, moon, and stars.

All that appears in idolatry is simply the reflection of what is in the heart. And God must be in the heart, with all the heart, all the soul, all the mind, and all the strength, or else idolatry is there. There is no middle ground.

In fact, after the flood, when men first left the true God and went away and had gods of their own-they allowed these gods to occupy the place of God to them, thus showing that when they knew God they recognized Him as their only ruler.

When I love God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength:

• Who alone will be my God? God.

• Who will be my only authority? God.

• Who alone will have authority over me? God.

• Is He capable of exercising right authority? Yes.

• Is He capable of keeping man straight? Yes.

When a man loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, he does not need any other law or authority to keep him straight in the world. Who is his governor? God. And is God able to govern when we love Him supremely? Yes. But, when man leaves God, and goes into idolatry, is he capable of governing himself? No.

Human Rulers

Now after the flood, while they yet knew God, they recognized Him as their only King and Governor. They had no other ruler. When they first departed from God, and put other gods in His place,-I mean at the beginning, when they went away from God, and put other gods in God's place-they allowed those other gods to occupy the place of rulers. They professed that these gods were their rulers. They had no kings; men did not yet profess to set themselves up as rulers. Men professed that the gods were the kings; and the men who were in authority were only the representatives of the gods, while the gods were the real kings.

The evidence of this you will find in Empires of the Bible, page 50. Here are the first records that were found in Babylonia, where the race started, and where the confusion of tongues took place--where the race forgot God. I read:

To Ninridu, his King, for the preservation of Idadu, Viceroy of Ridu, the servant, the delight of Ninridu.

Here the ruler, Idadu, in writing an inscription to his god, professed that he was simply the viceroy of his god. He did not claim to be a king. Thus you see that the god was this man's king. The god was held to be the king of the people, and this man who was in authority, was only the god's viceroy, or lieutenant.

This shows that the knowledge of God as the rightful Ruler, was so recent that no man had the courage yet to set himself up for king. Do you see that? Think carefully. When God was the only ruler, He was, of course, their only king; but when they turned away from Him and took other gods, their knowledge of the true God was so recent, His relationship was so recent in their knowledge, that when they put other gods in the place of God, and set up these false gods as their king-a man in authority among men had not the courage to take the title of king; but chose to be known as the viceroy of the god who was to be the real king.

I repeat it. The knowledge of the true God as the only King was so recent in the minds of these men that no man had yet the courage to take the title of king. Their recollection of God as the only King and Ruler was still so clear that it was too much like an attempt to dethrone God, for any man to take the title of king.

I will read another inscription from this same land, from the same time:

To Ninip the King, his King,
Gudea Viceroy of Zirgulla, his house built.

To Nana the Lady, Lady splendid,
His Lady, Gudea, Viceroy of Zirgulla ... raised.
--Empires of the Bible, p. 50

Here is a man who built a house in honor of his god. This man says he is viceroy of this god, who is king. This man Gudea does not profess to be king. He is in authority, but he does not profess to be king. Who is the king? His god. That shows to you again that the knowledge of the true God as the only King was so recent in their minds, they had not gone so entirely away from God and from the idea of God as their only King and Ruler, as to be willing to set aside the idea of God's kingship, and allow a man to take the title of king.

[A. F. Ballenger]: The man in place of authority, then, claimed to be the viceroy of his god, and not a king?

Yes. There were no kings yet. We are not speaking of man as king. There were no kings yet among men. There were men in places of authority. A man was ruling over others. He had power, but he did not call himself king. He was not known as king, and would not yet allow himself to take the title of king. Why? Because he had not yet got so far away from the idea of the true God, as sole rightful King, as to be brave enough, as to have wicked courage enough, to set aside all idea of any godship as king, and set himself up for king.

These are the earliest records that have been found in that land. You can see that they are among the very earliest. They are records from the time before men took the title of king at all, and when they had the idea of the true God as being King.

But here is a record a little earlier than that, which speaks of the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel. On the fourth page of Empires of the Bible you have the Bible account of the confusion of tongues. This is the account that the people wrote among whom the confusion of tongues occurred. In the Bible you have the Lord's record of it. In this inscription on the bricks that were buried in the ruins of Babylon and have been discovered, you have their account of it. You can set it alongside of the account in the Bible, in the 11th chapter of Genesis, and you will see the two things exactly alike. Here is what they said about it:

Babylon corruptly to sin went and
small and great mingled on the mound.

Their work all day they founded,
to their stronghold in the night
entirely an end he made.

In his anger also the secret counsel he poured out
to scatter abroad, his face he set
he gave a command to make strange their speech.

Violently they fronted against him.
He saw them; and to the earth descended,
When a stop he did not make.

Violently they wept for Babylon--
very much they wept.

This is one of the earliest accounts there is. These others are next to it. But these others show that there was a time when there was no king yet among men; that the man in authority would not take the title of king; that his god was his king; and the idea of the true God being king was so recent that he was not courageous enough to say that he was king. As yet it was usurping too much authority in the face of his idea of the true God.

Nimrod

That was before Nimrod. Nimrod was the first man who had the courage to take the title of king in the face of the idea that God was king. So I read:

Nimrod was this bold man. The name that he bears signifies rebellion, supercilious contempt, and, according to Gesenius, is equivalent to the extremely impious rebel. And "he began to be a mighty one in the earth." Or, as another translation gives it, he 
"was the first mighty one in the earth."--Empires of the Bible, p. 50

Nimrod was the first man who ever took to himself the title of king; the first one to hold kingly authority and openly wear the title of king. And his name signifies exactly what that thing meant among the people over whom he set himself. Now, not my statement, but the statement of an authority upon this subject, says this:

With the setting up of Nimrod's kingdom, the entire ancient world entered a new historical phase. The oriental tradition which makes that warrior the first man who wore a kingly crown, points to a fact more significant than the assumption of a new ornament of dress, or even the conquest of a province. His reign introduced to the world a new system of relations between the governor and the governed. The authority of former rulers had rested upon the feeling of kindred, and the ascendancy of the chief was an image of parental control. Nimrod, on the contrary, was a sovereign of territory, and of men just so far as they were its inhabitants, and irrespective of personal ties. Hitherto there had been tribes--enlarged families--Society; now there was a nation, a political community--the State. The political and social history of the world henceforth are distinct, if not divergent.--Empires of the Bible, p. 51

The Scripture says of Nimrod's kingdom: "The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and built Nineveh." (Genesis 10:10-11)

Our translation reads: "...went forth Asshur, and built Nineveh."

But the true idea is, as the margin gives it: "He [Asshur] went out into Assyria and built Nineveh," [and the other towns there named].

So that the beginning of his kingdom was in Shinar, and the extension of it was to Assyria.

Nimrod was not simply a mighty hunter of beasts; but also a persecutor of men. And the power which he had acquired, which he got into his hand by this establishment and extension of his kingdom, he used to compel people to recognize his power and the god whom he served. So that from the first state that ever was in the world until the last one there will ever be in the world, every one of them has used against God the power that it had.

I will state that again: Every state, from the first one that ever was, that is, Nimrod's, until the last one that will ever be, that is, this one, has used its power against God, against His truth, against His people; to compel people away from God. From the beginning to the end, that is the record of every one of them. When the world shall be ended, that will be the record of the kingdoms and the states of the world.

Here is a statement from the first-page article of the Review:

"[The arch-deceiver] seduced the people to bow to idols, and thus gained supremacy over earthly kingdoms. He considered that to be the god of this world was the next best thing to gaining possession of the throne of God in heaven."--Ellen White, Review and Herald, Apr. 14, 1896.

In the history cited in the previous lesson, you can see the working of the scheme thus revealed in the Spirit of prophecy. First, men went into idolatry, then to monarchy. And the first one that did that established a state, and was himself a persecutor of men by the power that he had thus gained. That is the history. You will see it worked out in other nations as we go along.--General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 2, 1897--Tuesday Evening, March 2, 1897

Chapter 2 - Missionaries for God

Abraham

It was not long after Nimrod until in all that country God was forgotten by all but Abraham alone. Abraham alone sought and found God; and with Abraham God started the race once more in the Lord's way. Now mark what He said to Abraham. In view of what we have studied, in view of what was before us in the previous lesson, and what I have called your attention to just now, consider what God said to Abraham when He began with him a new nation; that is, a nation of God. Genesis 12:1 tells us what the Lord said to him at first: "Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get out of your country." (Genesis 12:1)

What first? [Congregation]: Your country.

"And from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1)

Three things God said Abram must leave:

1. His country;

2. His kindred;

3. His father's house.

His father's house were idolators. His country forced people to idolatry; it was against God. His country, his kindred, and his father's house, were idolators, and he had to leave all. The Lord showed him the land; but did He give him possession of it? "No, not so much as to set his foot on." (Acts 7:5)

When God called him out of that country, did He bring him into another one? No, "But He promised that He would give it to him and to his seed after him." (Acts 7:5)

Then when God called him out of his country, and did not bring him into the other one, where did that leave him? [Congregation:] A pilgrim and a stranger.

That left God's representative in this world, absolutely without a country in this world. Yet was he absolutely without a country? "[He looked for] a better country, that is a heavenly." (Hebrews 11:16)

Let us turn to the 11th chapter of Hebrews, and look at that. "By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." (Hebrews 11:8)

But from what did he go out? From his country, not knowing where he went. "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." (Hebrews 11:9)

You know He gave him no inheritance, no, not so much as to set his foot upon; and yet He promised to give it to him and to his seed after him. He brought him out of his own country; and of no other country on earth did He give him so much as to set his foot upon. Thus he was left absolutely without a country on earth. Of this we are certain; but remember what God was saying. Who was Abraham at this time? He was "the friend of God." (James 2:23) "the father of all them that believe God." (Romans 4:11)

Is he your father? Have you a country in this world? "For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.	These all died in faith, not having received the promises." (Hebrews 11:10-13)

What did God promise when He brought him out of his country? Did He promise him a country? Yes. But he did not get a country in this world; "but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country." (Hebrews 11:13-14)

Can a man seek a country when he has one? No; for a man can no more have two countries, than he can serve two masters. "Well," says one, "Abraham was out of his."

Yes, but he had an opportunity to go back if he wanted to. If he had counted that his country yet, so that it was upon his heart, and he had become homesick when he got eight hundred or a thousand miles away, and there was a famine in the land, and there was not as much of an excursion about it as he thought there might be, he could have said: "I would like to see the folks there just once more, the dear old plains and familiar trees. If I could only do that, then I would be willing to come back and stay in this field awhile."

If he had thought thus, he could have had opportunity to return; for it is written: "Truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned." (Hebrews 11:15)

"Mindful": what is "mindful"? If they had had their minds full of that country from which they came out, they could have had opportunity to have returned. And they would have had it, too; for then they would have made it. "But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly; wherefore [for this reason] God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them a city." (Hebrews 11:16)

Have you gotten out of your country? "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. For what says the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Comes this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised." (Romans 4:1-12)

Now that faith of our father Abraham, which he had yet being uncircumcised, was this faith that he had when God called him out of his country, from his kindred, from his father's house, and was left hanging in the hands of God, without a country in the world. And he is father to all those who believe, even though they be not circumcised; and all the others, too, provided we all walk in the steps of that faith which he had when he was uncircumcised. "If you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29) "Your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs." (Genesis 15:13)

Are you His seed? Are you the seed of Abraham because you believe in Jesus Christ? Are you a stranger in the land where you are? If you are His seed, you are. Why? Because it is not your country. It is not your country anymore.

Leaving Your Country

Now this is not theory. This comes down to practical, everyday religion now. Brother Dan Jones yesterday, you remember, was talking about missionaries going to Mexico, and he wanted missionaries that would go there and take their hearts along. Those who would leave their hearts in the United States, or whatever State it might be, when they went down there to do missionary work, he does not want; for then they cannot do missionary work.

The Lord wanted Abraham to be a missionary to all people whom he should after meet on the earth; and he was that. But God knew, and every other one does know who sees this as the Lord sees it, that no man can be a missionary in this world, who has a country in this world. You and I cannot be missionaries in any other country if America is our country. We cannot be missionaries in America, so long as America is our country. You cannot be a missionary even at home, if you have not first got out of your country. That is so. It is so in the nature of things.

[Question]: How do you make that out? We cannot make it out. I do not propose to make it out. The Lord has made it out, and you and I are to get it and believe it.

For what are we missionaries in the world? Let us look at that. Why are we sent to be missionaries? Missionaries of what? What is our mission work? What is the object of it? Are we missionaries for America, or are we missionaries for God? Is America God's country, independent of all others on the earth? It is not good enough to be God's country; and it is not good enough for God's people, however good it is.

You and I are to be missionaries for God, to call people unto God; to call them from where they are unto God, from sin unto righteousness, from darkness into light, from the country where they are, into the better country which God has prepared.

Now if Germany is my country,--and if my heart is there, it is my country,--how can I call people to a country where I do not belong, which is not mine? If America is my country, how can I do missionary work in behalf of another country? It cannot be done.

When God wanted Abraham to be a missionary for God, a missionary in behalf of a country to which God calls all people, He put him where he could be a missionary indeed to all people. God called him to be a missionary, and in this he set an example for all people who should come after, of what it means to begin to do missionary work.

The first thing is to get out of your country. So if you are going to be a missionary in Nebraska, get out of your country. If you are going to be a missionary in Mexico, get out your country first. For if you are going to be a missionary on the earth at all, the
Lord says to you, "Get out of your country;" and then He follows it up, and says, "from your country, and from your father's house." (Genesis 12:1)

All these things hinder missionary work, until you have got away from them and out of them.  But when you have got out of your country and from your kindred and from your father's house, then wherever you are on earth, you are a missionary. You do not have to be that; you are that. "Whosoever he be of you that forsakes not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:33)

And: "He that loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:37) "Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1)

Now I said a moment ago, and I say again, that this is practical Christianity every day as it always has been by those who believe God.

[Voice]: How can a man stay in Nebraska, and yet get out of his country?

By being born again. If he was born in Nebraska, he needs to be born again. If he was born in America, let him be born again, and he will be out of his country. If he was born in Germany, let him be born again, and he will be out of his country.

Now, brethren, there is very much in this. There is nothing in this world that has hindered our missionary work so much as this repeated going to a foreign field of labor, and preparing to return almost immediately. Every man among Seventh-day Adventist missionaries that has been in a foreign country, knows this is a fact. And he does not have to go out of the United States to find it out.

It has actually been suggested that it would be an advisable thing to get a second ship to bring home the missionaries that the "Pitcairn" takes out; as the "Pitcairn" takes them out, let another ship follow around in a short time, when they get homesick, and bring them home! Now this thing will have to stop, or we will never be missionaries on this earth; the Lord does not want any such thing as that.

If your heart is in this country; or if your heart is here with your kindred; if your heart is here in your father's house,--then for your soul's sake, and for the sake of the cause of God, do not go away from it till you get your heart away from all this. For where your heart is, there will your treasure be, and you will want to get back as quickly as possible.

If you go to another country, while your heart is not there, you cannot do any good while you are there; you will be a nuisance to yourself, and to all that are around you. You need not think you will not be; for you will.

What we are to do, is to know where our home is,--our rightful home,--and that it is nowhere on this earth; that it is in heaven, and that we are to go there soon. And then, wherever you are called on this earth, bear in mind that you are going home. Then if it be to the South Sea Islands, if it be to Mexico, you will be at home; and you know it, and are there to stay at home and work for God where you are until He calls you to another field; and when you get there, you will still be at home. In that way you will never be in a strange place, and the people will not be strangers to you.

Now this idea of having any country in this world, works just this way. With reference to countries, that country that is yours is the leading thing in your mind; and if you go to another country, you will constantly be drawing comparisons between that country and your own country. The lessons that you give, the sermons that you preach, the very influence that accompanies you will be so tinctured with it, unconsciously to yourself, that the people will recognize it all the time. Thus there is a barrier between you and them that you never can get over until you get out of your country.

As long as that thing is in you, there is a barrier between you and them. Your work cannot be effective until that barrier is broken down between you and the people, and they see that you are separated from your country, from your kindred, and from your father's house. But when you have got out of your country, when you have been born again, your nativity is in that heavenly country; your home is there; and that is the only land you have any heart for. Then there will be no barrier between you and anybody on this earth, and you can take the gospel to every man in this world. You will meet a friend in everybody that you meet on earth; they will not be strangers to you.

As a matter of fact, you can go among people in other countries, and you will find that they are just as good as the people in this one. A year ago last summer, I was in several of these other countries. I was in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Holland, England, Ireland, Scotland,--in all, sixteen different countries. Every one of these countries, every one in its place, was to me just as good as this country ever was.

In many things they are exactly alike. The water over there is just like the water in this country. Grass grows there exactly as it does in this country,--the top grows up. Trees grow there exactly as they do in this country, and are exactly like the trees in this country. Even human beings are in shape and general appearance exactly as they are in this country. Well, when the hills, the rocks, the water, the trees, the grass, and the people over there are precisely like they are in this country, are they not just as good as these? I fail to see any difference.

[Elder Ballenger]: Would you be just as free to talk these things in all those countries as you are here?

Certainly. I did preach just these things in those countries. You can preach the gospel anywhere. Brethren, I found good people every step of the way, and nothing but good people. I did not find any other kind. Honestly, I did not. People who were perfect strangers--whom I never saw before, whose language I could not understand, and who could not understand mine--would do everything they possibly could to help me along and show me, and help me in every way they could. In the places where I was, the money that I had in my pocket was their kind of money. I could not read it. When I went to pay street-car fare, buy a ticket for the train, or anything of that kind,--all I could do was to hand out enough to be sure of it, and let them take what I ought to pay for it, and they took it, and took no more than that, and gave me the right change.

I tell you, brethren, mankind are just alike everywhere. The only difference is that in some places they are little better than in others. That's all the difference I find. And the gospel--the gospel is the same, we know, everywhere in the world. There is no question about that. And that gospel being the same everywhere, it is provided for all mankind. And all mankind being just as much alike and just as much the same as the gospel is, when you take the gospel in the Lord's way, and go to the people in the Lord's way, you will find it works just this way all the time and everywhere.

While I was in Denmark, that, to me, was really the best country on the earth; and I enjoyed it with the people all around about me! While I was in Norway, to me that was the best country in the world. When I was in Turkey, to me that was the best country on earth; and if I were to seek a mission field, I would go straight to Turkey. The Turks are just like other people,--clever and gentlemanly when they meet you on the street, and through the country as they meet you on the road.

Brother Holser and I had to wait while the ship lay at anchor in Smyrna, Asia, and we went out to visit the ruins of Ephesus. He went further than I did, but we went together about six miles out in the country alone. We went just as you go out into the fields here. We met people on the highway just as you do here. I did not feel in danger of any kind, and I do not think he did. We found nothing to be scared at. We walked around there just as we would here. We were at Nicomedia when the Armenians said it was hardly safe to go out of the house, and above all, for anyone to be found out walking upon the hills; but we went out of the city and up on the hills, while waiting for the cars. We met Turks on the road with their wagons and oxen; we found them resting by the road. We did not feel afraid. There was no danger to us. There was safety everywhere.

I say to you, that in every one of those countries the people are good people, clever people, kind people, accommodating people. They will drop their work to do you a favor, to show you the way, to get you through a street, to go with you a block or two to show you the way, although they never saw you before, and never expect to see you again. My heart went out in kindly feeling toward those good folks all around, and I wish that they could go with us to that better country where we could be together, and kind to each other all the time. As I said a moment ago, and as D. T. Jones told you yesterday, this lies at the root of missionary work. It is that. There have been those sent away, willing, glad to go on a foreign mission. That is what they started upon, that is what their pretensions were; at large expense they got there. Only a little while, and a letter is received, pleading to come back:

"Oh, only let me come home! I don't ask you to pay my way home; only let me come back."

[Voice]: Does the Foreign Mission Board give such ones opportunity to come back?

Certainly. How could they do otherwise? This is no ideal tale. It is fact, brethren. But that is not missionary work. Of course the Foreign Mission Board would not wish such persons to remain there. The best thing they could do was to let them come home; for the only place where they could do anything was at home. Their heart was at their home in America.

In fact, some were so afraid they would die if they stayed there, that they came home and died. This is a fact. I am not using that expression, or putting it that way to make a play upon your feelings, or anything of that kind. Some persons have been so homesick that they were afraid they could not live there; and they came home by their own request, and not long afterward died. They could not have done any less than that if they had remained abroad.

Hardship and Self-Denial

I know, and you know, too, that many have gone on foreign missions with more of an idea of going on an excursion, than going for hard missionary work. And when they found, at the end of the journey, that it was not an excursion, but hardship; that it meant self-denial, sickness, and burning fever, that took all the excursion out of it in a little while. That was not what they had in mind when they started.

I know, and you know, that there is a halo in this idea of missionary work, at the beginning. But we want to get to solid facts, to get our eyes off the halo, and remember that there is a hard substance just back of it. There is somewhat of a halo in getting aboard the train or ship, with a large crowd of people, and much parade, as we start on the mission, honored like that. Of course that is all right, but those who go must be sure that their minds and hearts are on something more solid than that. They need to bear in mind that, while the brethren are willing to escort them to the train or the ship, and shed tears, if need be, at the parting, that beyond all that, each one of those missionaries must not forget that he is going out to meet hardships, to meet perplexities, peril, and sicknesses.

And let him remember that he may not only meet all these things, but go through them, and not be afraid that he will die. Let every one be perfectly sure that he is dead before he starts, and he will not be afraid that he will die when he gets there. But if you have not died before you start, then don't start until you are dead; because otherwise you will do no good either to yourself or to the cause. You will be only a burden to those who are there--if there are any there before you go who are faithful.

Now that is the truth, and you know it. Then why should we allow that thing to be lost sight of? Such a thing as that has been needed in our work all these years. Large sums of money would have been saved if such a thing as that had been insisted upon before you started. Great mistakes would have been avoided, and an immense amount of misery, if this thing had been insisted upon, and insisted upon before the laborers left.

As I said a moment ago, if you are really dead before you go, and while you are there, you are not going to be much disturbed by the prospects of death. It doesn't follow that you are going to die because you get sick, very sick,--burning with a fever. It doesn't follow that you are going to die, and that you should think that you must pick up and start home just as soon as you get out of that, or get well enough to start.

I know of missionaries, perhaps you do too, one in particular, and his wife, whom I have in mind, who went on a foreign mission. They were both young people. Neither of them, I think, over twenty-two; the husband was probably twenty-three at the most. They went to their field, and entered upon the work. In the course of time, sickness came to them. The wife was attacked first with the native fever, and was terribly sick--as sick as they get, I suppose, and live; but neither of them got homesick along with the fever. They stuck right to it bravely; the husband nursed the wife through her sickness, and just as she was barely able to sit up and walk around, he himself was stricken with the same fever as severely as she had been; and she, in that weak condition, nursed him through. But they went through it all like brave Christians, thank the Lord. They are in that field yet; they are a success in that field where they are, and have been a success from the day they landed there. That is to be our ideal.

Waiting for God's Call

Now I do not say that none of those who went away should never have come back. I do not say that none of them should have come back immediately after they reached the field. But I do mean to say, brethren, that they should have known before they went away, whether they were to come back right away or not.

That the Mission Board thinks you might make a good missionary isn't evidence enough for you to act upon to go on a foreign mission. You want to know for yourself that God calls you to go there; and that you go there because God wants you there in that place. Then when you go, you will go because God calls you, and you will know that He is with you while you are going. You will know that He is with you when you get there; and you are not going to be scared by any difficulties, nor discouraged by any hardships, nor turned back by any sicknesses, nor even at the prospect of death.

If it should come to the literal fact of dying a physical death, you do not know how you are defeating the cause if you run away to escape it. You and I, every Christian, and especially every Seventh-day Adventist Christian, because it is Christian experience, must get hold of this one living principle, that the Christian's work isn't done when he dies the physical death. If he is faithful to his work while he lives, and dies at his post, his work goes on after he is dead.

Now that is a fact. If you go with God's call, if you go with God with you, and if you die before you leave, if you are the kind of missionary that God calls,-the kind that Abraham was,-you yourself are to know for yourself, before God, under God, and with God, that this is His will concerning you.

That you have a conviction today that you are to go as a missionary, is not evidence that you are to start from this Conference to go to that field. If your conviction is a right one, and good, it will keep. If it is not the right kind of conviction, it ought not to keep. It ought to spoil as soon as possible. And if you have to keep it a little while, and it spoils, it is better to spoil here than after you are in the field.

If your conviction is from the Lord, it is a good one and will keep. David had a conviction for twenty years that he was to be king of Israel. But he was not anxious at all for the time to come when he would be king of Israel. He didn't hurry up the thing. When all things were in his hands, he would not move a finger to put himself upon the throne. He had a conviction that was good enough to keep for twenty years; and when the Lord had tried him and could trust him, He brought him to the throne himself.

So you may have a conviction concerning a certain field. It may be from God. Now, do not attempt to carry out your own idea whether the Mission Board believes in it or not, or whether the Conference believes in it or not. Just wait for God, and let Him tell other people that this is so. When we wait thus for God, and then go, the Lord goes with us, and we know it; and He is with us while we are there, and we know it. That is our post, and we will stand at that post until God calls us away. And if He has used us there as long as He can, effectually, alive; and He can use your influence better if you are dead; then the thing for you to do is to lie down to die just a happy Christian; knowing that God will carry on your work after you are dead. The conviction that God put upon hearts by you while you were alive and talked to them, will be deepened and strengthened and quickened by your good example, after you are dead; and by it they will be brought to Jesus Christ.

Are you willing, then, that God should preach the gospel by your death as well as by your life? Are you willing that He should preach the gospel by you, dead, physically dead, and in the grave, as certainly as you are willing that He should preach the gospel with you alive and walking on the ground? If you are not, you are not ready to go on a mission.

The Example of Paul

Now I am going to read that from the Scriptures. Turn to the 1st chapter of Philippians. There is the example of that missionary whom God called, as a pattern to you, as an example to all who should afterward believe on Jesus Christ, to everlasting life. You remember the hardships of Paul. You remember his vicissitudes, his trials, his persecutions, his scourgings, his perils everywhere; and you know that he never faltered in any place where he was. "But I would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;	So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places." (Philippians 1:12-13)

When this was written, he did not know what day the decree of the emperor would be carried out, and he would be executed. He was expecting that. Now think of all these things he passed through. The scourgings, the trials, the persecutions, the perils, the robberies, stoned once and dragged out of the city and left for dead. Now he says, "I would you should understand that these things have happened unto me for the furtherance of the gospel." (Philippians 1:12)

What was God doing through every one of these trials, sufferings, and perils? He was using the man, to preach the gospel by him, so that when those people stoned him and dragged him out of the city and left him for dead, God's Holy Spirit was fixing upon their hearts the seal of His truth, that that man was of God, that the message he brought to them was of God; and if they rebelled against it, their perdition was sealed; and if they surrendered to it, they were saved.

That is what God is to do by us. All that we are in the world for, is that God may preach the gospel by us. Not so much we doing it, as God doing it by us, whether by word or by influence; and God can do just as well by influence as by word. God will put gospel into our influence as well as in our words. We are always preaching by our influence just as well as by our words. "And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death." (Philippians 1:14-20)

Is it not written, then, that God will use a dead man to magnify the gospel and the glory of Jesus Christ? Are you willing that He shall do it by you, when He can do it better with you dead than if you are alive? Dead indeed, but alive unto Him. Then do you not see that in that good sense the Christian never dies? "for all live unto Him." (Luke 20:38) "Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." (Romans 14:8)

Are you? If you are the Lord's while you live, you are the Lord's when you are dead. And as certainly as God uses you while you are alive, to preach the gospel, He will use you when you are dead, to preach the gospel. And your work will not stop when you are dead. As certainly as yours is the work of Christ while you are alive, it will go on when you are dead. Your influence will tell, and God will do things by you after you are dead, that He cannot do so well while you are alive.

Suppose Paul should die. He expected it. Look at the seventeenth verse of the next chapter. But, by the way, in view of this, what was he doing all the time? "I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." (Philippians 1:18) "And if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." (Philippians 2:17)

What did he refer to when he said, "If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith"? He was expecting daily that he would be offered up as a sacrifice of the faith of Jesus Christ. What was he doing about it? "I joy, and rejoice with you all." What were they to do? "For the same cause also do you joy, and rejoice with me." (Philippians 1:18)

Did he expect the Philippians to rejoice with him when his head was cut off? Yes; he says so. Brethren, when we get hold of the fact that the Christian's work does not stop when he is dead, we will not have so much of this resolving and sending sympathetic resolutions to people because somebody has died. Thank the Lord, that, though he is dead, his work is going on. Be glad of it-not glad that he is dead, but glad that his work is going on; that God is using him better that way than if he were alive.

Therefore let God come in and have all the place, so that we shall be loving God with all the heart, and all the soul, and all the mind, and all the strength. That is what it is to be a missionary.
 
And the first thing of all, in order to be that kind of missionary, is, "get out of your country."--General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 3, 1897--Wednesday Evening, March 3, 1897--PP Editor's note: The first few paragraphs of this study were moved to the end of the last study, to keep the flow of thought in better order. Those paragraphs began with "The Scripture says of Nimrod's kingdom" 

Chapter 3 - Egypt and Israel

Our first lesson gave us the origin of the state; the establishment of the first one in history. Our second lesson gave us the first example of separation of church and state in history. At that early time the Lord indicated plainly how complete the separation should be between church and state. We are to follow both of these tonight, until they meet again, in the same land.

The Egyptian State

Nimrod was the son of Cush; Cush inhabited Ethiopia; Cush was the son of Ham; and Egypt was the land of Ham. Thus we trace the genealogy of Nimrod directly to Egypt; and we can trace his example also to Egypt. Although Nimrod was the first man to wear the kingly crown, the first one who bore the title and asserted the dominion of king, yet in Egypt that example of Nimrod in all its phases was followed most completely, was established most fully.

In Egypt there was not a king until after the time of Nimrod; not until after he had usurped the place and authority of king. For, you remember, when Nimrod did it, it was against God, against the people's idea of God, and against their knowledge of Him. At that time the people knew that in this, Nimrod was taking the place of God; and his name indicates the views that were then prevalent as to the action. In Egypt the same course was pursued. The Egyptian records certify that the first rulers of Egypt were the gods, the next were the demi-gods, that is the half gods; after these were the kings themselves who were men.

Thus you see that in that land the procedure was identical with that over in Shinar. In Egypt the king intentionally and professedly, on his own part, stood in the place of god to the people. The people looked upon him as such. The sun was the god; the king of Egypt was the son of the sun. He was god to the people. The people lived upon his breath. He was their breath of life. They derived their spirits from him. To them he was the "giver of life, like to sun eternal."--See Empires of the Bible, chapter 7, par. 27, 38, 43, 44, 49, 64, 71-83, 96, 102; chapter 14, par. 15, 16. Thus in Egypt the king was not simply the representative, the viceroy of the god; he was the embodiment of God. The life of God dwelt in the king, and came through the king to the people. Thus the king was life to the people, because in him was represented the great all-pervading god, the sun. There was no attribute of God that the king did not represent to the people. Such was the system of kingship and government in ancient Egypt.

Abraham Looked for a Country

Now go back to Chaldea when God separated the church from the state, as we read in the previous lesson, when He said to Abraham: "Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1)

And bear in mind that it was not until after Abraham had separated from the last of his kindred that the Lord showed him the land. Abraham separated first from his country; secondly, from his father's house; and thirdly, from his kindred. It was not until after Lot went over to the vale of Sodom, that God showed Abraham the land. (Genesis 13:14-15)

When the call of God had been made to Abraham, and he was separated from his country,-heart and soul and all, and-from his father's house, and all his kindred, and stood where the Lord would have him stand, then the Lord said to him: "Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you are northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever." (Genesis 13:14-15) "And I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession." (Genesis 17:8)

Now I ask you, When God told Abraham to lift up his eyes and look, did Abraham see more than he would have seen had he lifted up his eyes without God telling him to? [Congregation]: Yes.

He saw something, then, that he could not have seen, if God had not told him to look. And when God told him to lift up his eyes and look, that which he saw was the land that God had promised him. At that time God showed him the promised land, and that was the country to which the Lord called him. He did not give it to him at that time "no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him." (Acts 7:5)
 
And he looked everlastingly to that heavenly country; that country which has a city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God. There was: "The promise that he should be the heir of the world," (Romans 4:13) and Abraham received it "through the righteousness of faith." (Romans 4:13)

Then, when God told Abraham to look at it, and that He would give it to him and to his seed for an everlasting possession, what did he see? the world? [Voices]: He saw the world to come.

And that is the country that belonged to him from that time on. "And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29)

And that is your country, and mine. And oh! to think what narrow, what entirely unworthy ideas one must have who is content with any other country, or has any inclination to any other country, or has any affection whatever for any other country. How can anyone do so, when he has his eyes upon that country which God has shown him, and unto which He calls him!

Missionaries in Egypt

Abraham died. Isaac lived and died. Jacob and his family were carried into Egypt, as the Lord said to Abraham: "Your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs." (Genesis 15:13)

And that was Egypt. Now think carefully. Don't forget this expression that the Lord gives us concerning Egypt, for that will be of use in lessons to come. The land in which they were to be strangers and serve the Lord, was Egypt. They dwelt there hundreds of years-in a land that was not theirs. And remember that it was the Egypt that we have sketched, in which the king was in the place of God, and was God to the people.

Let us glance at this church further for a moment, and see what the Lord was doing with it. We have a map before us to-night that shows us the country. Here is Chaldea where Abram was called from; and he went up here to Mesopotamia to Haran, where his father died. There he was separated from his father's house, and he then came into the land where he was separated from Lot.

While Abram was in this land, history was made, by the nations of the East conquering toward the west, even to the borders of Egypt. But by the time that Israel went to Egypt, or a little before that time, the Egyptian Empire was spread over all this Eastern country. It reached all over Egypt, down into Ethiopia, took in all the southern and western border of Asia Minor clear over to Armenia, Assyria, and Shinar; so that the Egyptian Empire covered the whole of the eastern region, the then known world. The Egyptian Empire, in its day, was as universal as the Roman was in its day, or any of the other nations that followed.

Now while history was made from the East, and the kings of these countries were conquering throughout the western region, even to the borders of Egypt, God set His church in the land of Canaan to keep alive the knowledge of the true God among the nations that were passing and repassing there. And when the Egyptian kingdom was spread all over this country, and the seat of empire of the world was the capital of Egypt itself, God took His people into Egypt, so that the ambassadors and governors of all the peoples, passing from all these countries, to the head of their government, which was Egypt, would come in contact with the people of God.

In Egypt the Lord planted His people in Goshen, in the passageway between these heathen nations and the capital of Egypt, so that the people, their ambassadors, and governors, would pass through Goshen, the land inhabited by the people of God, and would have their attention called to the true God.

In Egypt also Joseph was beside the throne so that the ambassadors coming into Egypt had to meet Joseph, who would give to them the knowledge of the true God. After Joseph died, the knowledge of Joseph and his influence, remained in the capital of Egypt until Moses. Then Moses was in the palace and beside the throne. Not simply beside it as Joseph had been; but Moses stood on the first step to the throne, for he was the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh's daughter was Pharaoh's wife; and Moses being the son of Pharaoh's daughter was doubly legitimate heir to the throne. If Pharaoh's wife had not been his daughter, her adopted first son would have been heir to the throne. Again, if Pharaoh had another wife and no other children, his daughter would have been heir to the throne. But when Pharaoh's daughter was Pharaoh's wife, then her adopted son was doubly heir to the throne. There was no disputing his right of heirship to the throne of Egypt, which was then the throne of the world.

At that time the king of Egypt was about eighty years old, so that there was but a little space between Moses and his doubly rightful place upon the throne, and the possession of all the power of the Egyptian Empire that covered the world. And at that time also, the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, and Moses believed it, and therefore deliberately and totally rejected the throne and all the power and glory of Egypt: "He ... refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." (Hebrews 11:24)

Moses believed the time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham. And, by the way, we would better settle it whether we believe it; because if we are sure that we believe it, we shall see more in Moses' belief in it. Turn to Acts: "When the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt." (Acts 7:17)

At the time when Moses was born, Pharaoh thought to destroy the people, so they would not multiply and become so powerful as to be able to get out of the land. The point is that Egypt not only had the Jews as foreign people, but it had a multitude of foreign people,-captives who had been taken from other countries into Egypt. So at that time there was about one third of the population of Egypt who were foreigners. The Hebrew word that the people multiplied, signifies that they "swarmed" as bees or fishes. When Pharaoh saw the people multiplying so abundantly, and the country so filled with foreigners besides, he became afraid that they would take the land in a revolt to leave the country.

Another thing that led to this was, while Israel was in Egypt; while the Egyptian Empire covered all the East, there was a set attempt by the power of the state to compel all the empire to worship only the sun. Different forms of sun-worship pervaded that empire, but an effort was made by all the power of the empire to shut off every form of sun-worship but just the naked disk of the sun in the sky, or an image before them of a disk of the sun. Now, Israel, of course, did not obey that edict. They would not worship the sun. They stood for the truth of God, and their doing so was an item which now was still before the mind of this king. It was another king that attempted to enforce sun-worship; but when this king came in, that thing was in his mind, and was the basis upon which he might reason that if this people did get a chance they would take the lead in getting out of the country.

The Time of the Promise

Now of that time the record is not only that "the people grew and multiplied" (Acts 7:17) but that "the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham." (Acts 7:17)

What promise had God sworn to Abraham? What was God's promise to Abraham? To give him the land that he saw. What land was that? [Voices]: The world.

What world? The world to come. That is the word of Stephen: "The time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham." (Acts 7:17)

Did it? Do you believe it? Do you believe that the time was nigh for God to give that land to Abraham which He had shown to him? It says, "to Abraham." Others would be there, but it was to Abraham. Not somebody else without Abraham; but Abraham and his seed. "He says not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ." (Galatians 3:16)

Was the time of the promise nigh, then, when God would give to Abraham and to Christ that land which God showed Abraham? I do not ask whether you ever thought of this before or not. I ask whether you believe what it says. I am not going to attempt to explain it. It does not need to be explained when we believe it once, for it says it. You know well enough without referring to the verses, from your knowledge of the Bible, that God made this promise every time to Abraham and his seed. Never to the seed without Abraham. Never to Abraham without the seed,-and "not unto seeds," but to "your seed." Then, when the time of the promise drew nigh to give that to Abraham, to whom else did it come? To Christ. How was it to come to Abraham? By Christ.

[S. H. Lane]: When the promise was repeated to Isaac and Jacob, was not the language the same?

Yes. It was always the same.

[S. H. Lane]: Then the question would be, Did Abraham necessarily have to be there to fulfill Stephen's declaration?

Yes, because it says, "To you, and to your seed," all the time. But other verses will come in that will make it positive.

Just a word now. Jacob died in Egypt, and was taken over into the land, and was buried there. Joseph died in Egypt, but he said: "Do not bury me; not even over in the land."

Joseph would not have them take him over to Palestine where Jacob was taken, and there buried. Joseph said: "God is going to visit you. You keep my corpse, and when God visits you, you take me out with you. Take my bones out with you." (Genesis 50:24-26)

And they did. And when they should get to the land, what land was it that God meant in the promise to Abraham? [Congregation]: The world to come.

Do you not see that Joseph never expected to be buried in this world?

Look at this another way. The word is, that: "The time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham." (Acts 7:17)

God had sworn to give to Abraham the land that He showed him, for an everlasting possession. But Abraham was now dead, and had been dead for hundreds of years. How, then, could God give the land to Abraham when he was dead? Plainly He couldn't. Then as God had sworn to give the land to Abraham; as the time was now nigh which God had sworn to Abraham; and as Abraham was now dead, it is certain that the land could not be given to Abraham while he was dead. And it is just as certain that the time was nigh when Abraham would be raised from the dead, that God might give him the land which He had sworn to give to him for an everlasting possession. By this, then, do you not see why Joseph would not allow his body to be buried-even in the land of Canaan, as was Jacob's? The truth is that Joseph believed that the time was nigh that God had sworn to Abraham to give him the land, and Joseph expected to enter upon the inheritance with Abraham. [Voice]: Did not that promise refer to the promise God made to Abraham, referred to in the 15th chapter of Genesis?

Yes, it is just exactly that, thank the Lord. So then, Joseph died, and was embalmed in Egypt, and was put in a coffin, and when Israel left Egypt, Joseph's bones were carried with them for forty years in the wilderness; and all that time Joseph's corpse was with them, there before their eyes, day in and day out, and was a rebuke to their unbelief.

Many people, I have found, in reading that verse of Stephen's speech, explain it this way, and that way, and the other way, rather than to believe what it says, rather than to look at the promise which God made to Abraham, and which He swore to Abraham, to give him the land which He showed him. But you have agreed that the land which God showed to Abraham was the world, and not this world, but the world to come? That is the country God swore to give him; and that is the country he looked for. That is the country which had a city which he looked for, whose builder and maker is God. And he would not think of an opportunity to go back to the other country, from which he had come out.

All the time God's oath was to give that land to Abraham and to his seed. Do not put "seeds" upon it, when God has torn it off; do not put an "s" to that when God has torn it away. "He says not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ." (Galatians 3:16)

There were many of them, that is true. Three million came out of Egypt, but these are not the ones that God was speaking of when He said, "To you, and to your seed," which was "as of one," and "which is Christ." Do you see that? Do not let the multitude of Israel get into your mind when you read the words, "To you, and to your seed."

When God cuts off the "s," we are not allowed to put in there at all. We must not put it there even in our thinking. Who was the seed? Christ. When he says, "To you, and to your seed," you and I must not read it in any other way than: "To you and Christ will I give it, for an everlasting possession."

We must not put any others than Christ there, except through Christ. "To you and Christ will I give it." Stephen says that: "The time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham." (Acts 7:17)

Stephen got that from the Bible. I want you to see that this was not an especial inspiration of the Holy Ghost given to Stephen just then, but it was all in the Bible before, and the Holy Ghost gave it to these others through Stephen, by calling to his mind the things that he had read before in the Bible. Please turn to the 6th chapter of Exodus. This is so plain in the scripture that there is no possibility of explaining it away. This is the time of the deliverance of Israel, and the Lord would do it. "Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shall you see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spoke into Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant." (Exodus 6:1-5)

What was His covenant? To give them the land. What did the land represent? what was it? The land, the world, that the Lord showed to Abraham, and swore to give it to him for an everlasting possession. [Voices]: The world to come.

Now He says, "I have remembered my covenant." (Exodus 6:5)

What did that signify? "I have remembered my covenant." Had 
He forgotten it? No; but that the time had come now to do what He had promised. You remember that in the 18th chapter of Revelation it says, "For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she has filled, fill to her double. How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no window, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her." (Revelation 18:5-8)

When God has remembered her iniquities, the time has come when she is judged. When He remembered His covenant, what time had come? The time had come to perform the oath. But what was the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? It was to give unto them that land for an everlasting possession, and to give it to them and to their seed. Who was the seed? Christ. "Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, which brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." (Exodus 6:6-7)

If Israel had believed that, would they ever have needed to enter into that bargain at Sinai? Before He started with them from Egypt at all, He said, "I will be your God, you shall be my people. (Also Leviticus 26:12) You shall know that I am the Lord. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for a heritage: I am the Lord." (Exodus 6:7-8) "The time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham." (Acts 7:17)

"I will bring you into the land that I did swear to give you." What is that promise, then? What land did God want to take Israel into? What land was there for them? The world to come. Now don't try to explain all this. I have no explanation for it. There is what the word says, and I believe it. It does not need to be explained. It needs only to be believed. No, do not try to explain it even to yourself. If it is new to you, if you have had other ideas about it, do not try to fit them to this. Let them all go, and see what this says.

Again I ask: What land was it that God swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
[Congregation]: The world to come.

Will you stick to that? You agreed awhile ago that this was right. Let us not go back on it now for our soul's sake. [Voice]: Would redemption have come to them?

Yes; redemption would have come to them. Redemption would have come to the world. All that would have come. But it would have come in a different way from what it did. The world would have a different experience from what it has had. We miss it when we look at the experience they had, and think that is what God called them to. They had that dreadful experience because they would not believe what God called them to. And, brethren, if you and I today look at these things which were set before Israel then, as they looked at them, we will do now as Israel did then. Israel did not see then what God had for them, and therefore they did not get what He had for them. Now if you and I see no more in those things than Israel saw, we will get no more than Israel got. As surely as we look at these things as Israel did, we will do today as Israel did then. "Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." (Hebrews 4:2-3)

Shall this now profit us by being mixed with faith in us who hear it? God forbid that Israel's experience should be repeated in us. This is set before us in order that we might escape.

The Song of Moses

Let us see what they did not see by their not believing in God. Let us see what God had for them, and get to it, instead of looking at things as they did, and failing to get it as they did. Turn to the 15th chapter of Exodus, and you have it stated very plainly. When Israel had come out of Egypt, and crossed over the Red Sea, you have these words, in the thirteenth verse: "You in your mercy have led forth the people which You have redeemed: You have guided them in your strength unto your holy habitation." (Exodus 15:13)

This chapter is the song of Moses. Those who stand on the Mount Sion, and get the victory of the beast and over his image and the number of his name, sing the song of Moses. Not a song patterned after that one. Not a song something like it. But they sing the song of Moses. That 15th chapter of Exodus is our song.

Where did God intend to take them? Unto His "holy habitation." Where was that holy habitation? [Congregation]: A city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

More. "The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold of the inhabitants of Palestina." (Exodus 15:14)

[E. J. Waggoner]: It did do it.

Of course it did. When they went over to that border, then the dukes of Edom were amazed. "The mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away." (Exodus 15:15)

What was to become of the inhabitants? [Voices]: They were to melt away.

[E. J. Waggoner]: They had already.

Just when they got up there, Israel asked, "Will you let us pass through your land?"

What did they say? "No, sir."

They were not permitted to set foot upon their land. But if they had gone straight from the Red Sea to the borders of Edom, all Edom would have stood still in amazement until they had gone by. Oh, Israel even yet, has not found out what Israel there missed. Brethren, when we find out what Israel there missed, it will give us an inspiration that will bring the power of God, and we shall believe it. "Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of your arm they shall be as still as a stone; till your people pass over, Oh Lord, till the people pass over which You have purchased." (Exodus 15:16)

What is He going to do with them? You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance." (Exodus 15:17)

Whose inheritance? The Lord's. But: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things." (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Who was leading Israel? God. Into what? "Your inheritance;"--not ours--Yours. "And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29) "your inheritance ... Oh Lord." (Exodus 15:17)

That is not all. "You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place, Oh Lord, which You have made for You to dwell in." (Exodus 15:17)

That is not all. "In the Sanctuary, Oh Lord, which your hands have established. What sanctuary is it that the Lord's hands have established?" (Exodus 15:17) [Voices]: The true sanctuary.

Of course it is. "Of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens: A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." (Hebrews 8:1-2)

That is the sum of our talk tonight, isn't it? That is where God wanted to take Israel. But they did not see. Do you see? That is where He wants to take us.

Do you see that this is where God wanted to take Israel then? If you do, then you will be ready to go to the place that Israel missed. But if you think that it was some earthly sanctuary that man pitched, that is all that Israel saw, and that is all that you will see. And Israel did not get into the land, and neither will you. We must see more than Israel saw, or we will never get farther than Israel got. But why did not Israel see more than they saw? They did not believe. But you and I are to believe now what Israel did not believe then, or we will never receive what Israel missed. But if we believe what Israel did not believe, then we will be brought into the inheritance that Israel was not brought into, into the tabernacle that Israel did not enter into, the holy habitation of God, into the "city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:10) "The Lord shall reign forever and ever." (Exodus 15:18)

He wants to reign over them himself; not Pharaoh any longer; no more Nimrod; no more of these idolaters; no more of these rebellious people. God wanted to lead Israel into the blessed land, and reign over them there forever and ever, but they did not know it. Oh what they missed by not believing the Lord! Oh what we have missed all these years! For as I will read to you tomorrow night, we would have been there long ago, if we had only believed the Lord. God says so, and it is so. We have no business in this tabernacle tonight. No business here at all, by right, because we have no business in the world. Being in the world, however, this is the place for us. But we ought not to be in the world at all. We ought to have been in the kingdom of God long ago. That is a fact, brethren. There is more in the Bible than we could bring out in another hour here, upon that one thought alone.

Moses Chooses Church Over State

Now Moses believed all that. He believed that the time for the fulfillment of the promise was near. But he was soon to occupy the throne of Egypt. He was to be king. He was to rule; to have an office, higher than that of mayor or clerk of any city. He was to rule not only a kingdom, but an empire; the empire of the world, and it was his right. By a double right it belonged to him.

He did not have to run for office. It was to fall to him, and there was none to dispute his right. It was only one step to the throne; only till this Pharaoh died, and he was nearly a hundred years old. Then this Moses would become king of the world, because the Egyptian Empire was worldwide.

Israel was having a hard time just then, too. Israel was oppressed, persecuted, and compelled to work in brick-kilns. Moses could have said: "Now our people are being oppressed; they are being persecuted; they are suffering for the cause of their God; but it will not be very long at the most, because Pharaoh is nearly a hundred years old, and cannot live much longer. Then I will bring in a reform. I will set this government straight. I will rule rightly. Not like these wicked Pharaohs. I believe in God. I am a Christian, and I am just so much the better qualified to govern because I am a Christian."

And he could not only have taken off their burdens, but could have given them office, and governed the world by the people of God. Was not the way open? It was only a step to the throne, and that step must shortly be taken. But let us see what that Christian did under such circumstances. Turn to the 11th chapter of Hebrews. Look closely, read it carefully, and see what it says: "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." (Hebrews 11:24)

What was it to refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter? To refuse to be king. There was the throne. It was only a step to it. But instead of stepping up there and seating himself upon the throne, he stepped down. He turned his back upon the throne of Egypt, and upon all the treasures and pleasures of Egypt, and turned his face to another country; for the time had come when God would call His people out of that country into this other country. Moses believed in Jesus Christ, and therefore believed in separation of church and state. Therefore he separated from the state and stood wholeheartedly with the church. God called him out of this country, as He called his father Abraham out of his country at the first. But that is not all. Listen: "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of [Egypt?] for a season." (Hebrews 11:25) [Congregation]: Sin.

Sin? He was heir to the throne. What was it, then, for him to place his mind upon the throne of Egypt, upon the power and the pleasures of the world, and of the governments of the world? What was it? Sin. Does it say so? [Voices]: Yes.

Do you believe that? [Voices]: Yes.

Was it sin for Israel then? [Voices]: Yes.

What is it now? [Voices]: Sin.

Brethren, there are some things in the Bible that we ought to think of. "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." (Hebrews 11:25)

But don't forget that the pleasures here referred to,--the pleasures of sin,--are really the pleasures of Egypt; the pleasures of being king of Egypt, of holding office in the earthly government, of ruling other people. All this was to come to him by genuine descent, by right of heirship. He did not have to put himself up as a candidate, or to solicit votes. It was naturally falling to him. The record says, that for him to have accepted and enjoyed all these pleasures would have been to enjoy the pleasures of sin. But he forsook that. Why? "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." (Hebrews 11:26)

Where was Christ with reference to the Egyptian government and throne? Was Christ one with Egypt? No. Could Moses have had Christ and the throne of Egypt both? [Voices]: No.

But the throne of Egypt was falling to him just as naturally as the leaves fall from the trees. He did not have to strive for office. Not even to get himself nominated. [A. F. Ballenger]: Or to get up a petition.

No. He did not even have to get a representative to present his petition to the president.

Look again at the situation. There was Egypt with its throne, its pleasures and treasures, falling to him as naturally as the leaves fall from a tree, without any personal effort on his part. All that he had to do was to sit with folded hands, until the king from old age should die, and then it was all his. Yet he would rather be with Christ, and suffer His reproach, than to be there on the throne of Egypt. And bear particularly in mind that to be with Christ he had to turn his back upon the throne and all the treasures and pleasures of Egypt.

Now don't say that I put that in there, that I made it up. Notice what the word says, and you will see that it is all there. Is it not really there? [Voices]: Yes.

Let us read that over again, and it will be time to close for tonight; then tomorrow night we will study Israel again: "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." (Hebrews 11:24-26) "The time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham," (Acts 7:17) to give him the blessed reward. Moses believed this, and separated himself from the state, turned his back upon the throne, choosing the reproach of Christ rather than all the power and pleasure and glory of Egypt. And don't forget that he had to turn his back upon all this, in order to be a partaker of the reproach of Christ.--General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 4, 1897 Wednesday Evening, March 4, 1897

Chapter 4 - Spiritual Egypt

It slipped my mind to mention in the previous lesson that the history that I sketched is all in Empires of the Bible. From page 77 onward to page 150, you have the history of Egypt, and the ground that was covered in the sketch that I gave last night.

The text for tonight is: "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." (Revelation 11:8)

I have read this verse for the one single purpose that you may see that there is such a thing as spiritual Egypt, and that the word of God reveals that which is "spiritually called Egypt."

Spiritual Egypt is indeed the literal Egypt, because spiritual things are the most literal of all things. There is, as there always has been, a physical Egypt over there in northern Africa, through which the river Nile flows; but that is not the literal Egypt; the literal Egypt is spiritual Egypt.

Deliverance from Spiritual Egypt

Turning now to the lessons last night on the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, we will follow their course again from the point where the song of Moses was sung. When they had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, between the walls of ice, and stood on the shore triumphant in the destruction of the Egyptians, who, essaying to follow their course, were drowned, they were delivered bodily, physically, from physical Egypt; but there was a deeper Egypt than that, from which they were not yet delivered.

You know that step by step in their experience, their hearts were in Egypt; and when anything occurred that disappointed them, they exclaimed: "Let us go back to Egypt!" (Numbers 14:3)
 
When they had reached the borders of Canaan, and the Lord wanted them to go in, they exclaimed, "Let us make us a captain and go back to Egypt!" (Numbers 14:4)

Where were their hearts then? In Egypt. The first thing in their thoughts was always Egypt.

As they stood at Mount Sinai, after they had heard the voice of the Lord, waiting for Moses to return from the top of the mount with the law of God, they made themselves an idol and worshiped it; and what idol was it? The calf of Egypt. Then, after they had listened to the voice of the Lord from the top of Sinai, proclaiming the word of His law, and heard the voice of the trumpet sounding louder and louder, and saw the top of the mount altogether on a smoke--after all this, you can see plainly that Egypt was so largely in their hearts that they turned to the idolatry of Egypt rather than wait until Moses returned from the top of Sinai with the message of God. And when they had been turned back from the borders of the land, and were obliged to wander in the wilderness, you can see that it was because of this very Egyptian bondage that held them, and from which they were not free. You note that when the Lord was feeding them daily with bread from heaven,--angel's food,--they were so far from Him, and so entirely wrapped up in Egypt, that they said: "Oh that we were back in Egypt where we had leeks and onions and garlic!" (Numbers 11:5) 

I need not cite you to another instance; this is enough to call your attention to the fact that Israel were not completely out of Egypt when they stood on the shore of the Red Sea and sang the song of Moses. Bodily they were out of Egypt, but spiritually they were not. They were delivered from Egyptian bondage of the body, but they were bound by Egyptian spiritual bondage; and the trouble is they never did get out of Egyptian bondage. They died in Egyptian bondage. When the Lord spoke His law from Sinai, Moses said to them that it was that they should sin not. Now read again: "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." (Hebrews 11:25)

But we saw in our other lesson that the pleasures of sin there referred to were but the pleasures of Egypt. Moses being heir to the throne of Egypt, all the wealth of Egypt, all the glory of Egypt, and all the power of Egypt were ready to fall into his hands, as he needed simply to step upon the throne and enjoy it. These were the pleasures of Egypt; but the record says they were the pleasures of sin. Then what is spiritual bondage of Egypt? and what is spiritual Egypt? The bondage of sin.

There is another way we can reach this, merely by a sketch. God called Abram, you remember, out of Chaldea into a land that He would show him. He had not yet given him the land; there was a famine in the land where he was, and he went down into Egypt, and there Sarai obtained an Egyptian maid by the name of Hagar. God promised Abram that his seed should be as the stars of heaven. Through unbelief, the promise was not fulfilled as soon as they expected, and Sarai said to Abram: "The Lord has restrained me from bearing; [the promise has not been fulfilled;] here is my Egyptian maid; take her, and peradventure the Lord will give us seed by her." (Genesis 16:2)

That was done; Ishmael was born; and the Lord said to Abram that Sarai should have a child indeed, should bear a son, and they should call his name Isaac. And Abram said in response to that: "Oh that Ishmael might live before You!" (Genesis 17:18)

That Egyptian maid was a bondwoman; and her son was a bond-son, a bond-servant. Now, when Abram said, "Oh that Ishmael might live before You," he was praying that Ishmael might be counted by God as the promised seed through whom deliverance and freedom should come to the sons of men and all the children of God. But could freedom come to any person through a bondman? Abram was himself free. He must be redeemed by the promised seed. If now his son, being a bond-son, should be accepted as the promised seed, Abram himself would be brought into bondage, instead of being delivered from bondage. And all who would become subject to Ishmael would also be brought into bondage. But what bondage? The bondage of sin. But his mother was an Egyptian bond-woman. And Ishmael being a bond-son, it was Egyptian bondage. Don't you see, then, that there was Egyptian bondage-a spiritual Egypt-in the family of Abram?

Turn to Galatians, and we shall see plainly that the Lord brings out that point. You remember the passage: "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, which is Agar." (Galatians 4:22-24)

This, you see, points right back to the family of Abram, and to Hagar, the Egyptian. That covenant, he says, genders to bondage, which is Hagar. Hagar, in the family of Abram, represents, in the allegory, the covenant from Sinai. That covenant gendered to bondage. Hagar was an Egyptian. Then what bondage is represented in the covenant at Sinai? Egyptian bondage. But it was spiritual bondage. Therefore there was then a spiritual Egypt. "For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia; and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." (Galatians 4:25-26)

So when Abram said, "Oh that Ishmael might live before You!" he asked that a bond-servant should be accepted as the promised seed. He asked that God, and all mankind, and the whole universe should go into Egyptian bondage in spiritual Egypt. Egypt is the symbol of darkness, and also the symbol of sin, as we have seen. Sin also is darkness itself. Egypt, then, representing sin and darkness, it is plain that sin and darkness is spiritual Egypt.

The Lord could never accept a bond-servant as the promised seed. So the Lord answered Abraham with these words: "Sarah your wife shall bear you a son indeed; and you shall call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto you at this set time in the next year." (Genesis 17:19-21)

Isaac was the promised seed. And just think! Isaac never was in Egypt. You remember that. There was a famine in Egypt, and he started to go there, but the Lord said to him, "Do not go into Egypt." (Genesis 26:2)

Abraham was in Egypt; Sarah was in Egypt; Israel was in Egypt, but Isaac never was in Egypt. He was the child of promise, born of the spirit, from the beginning. Again we read: "Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, you barren that bear not; break forth and cry, you that travail not; for the desolate has many more children than she which has a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." (Galatians 4:22-28)

And who are we? "If you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29)

Isaac was the child of Abraham,--the child of the promise. And when we become Abraham's seed by faith in Christ, delivered from the bondage of sin,--from spiritual Egypt,--we are as Isaac was; and he never was in Egypt.

Thus you see that Egyptian bondage and Christian freedom were in the family of Abraham. Ishmael was born after the flesh, and represented Egyptian bondage. Isaac was born after the Spirit, and represented the children of God by faith of Jesus.

Joseph was born, and in his youth went out to see his brethren, and the Ishmaelites came along and bought Joseph and carried him down into Egypt and sold him there. And afterward the house of Jacob went down into Egypt, and finally were delivered from Egyptian bondage. This is enough to enable you to see their whole course, from the call of Abraham up to the time when they reached the borders of the promised land. You see that there was a spiritual Egypt as well as a physical one; and that when the people were delivered physically from Egypt, there was a deeper Egypt from which they must be delivered if they would be the children of God.

A Parallel for Today

Now I read the passage that I referred to last night. It is in Great Controversy, Vol. IV, page 457, of this large edition:

"The history of ancient Israel is a striking illustration of the past experience of the Adventist body. God led His people in the Advent movement, even as He led the children of Israel from Egypt. In the great disappointment their faith was tested as was that of the Hebrews at the Red Sea."--Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 457-458.

Then, in the great disappointment of the Advent people, where in the history of Israel did they stand? [Voices]: At the Red Sea.

God wanted Israel at that time, as we read last night, to go right straight through into the land He had promised to Abraham-to His holy habitation, the place He had made for himself to dwell in; in His inheritance; in the sanctuary that His hands had established. And it was only eleven days' journey from Egypt to that land. But it took them forty years. And only four of those who started ever got there. [Voice]: Four, or two?

Four. Didn't you know there were four? There were Caleb and Joshua, and the two priests, the sons of Aaron-Eleazar and Ithamar. Of course it is always spoken of as two,-Caleb and Joshua,-but the two priests went in also. [Voice]: They may not have been twenty years of age.

Yes; they were thirty; for they were anointed to the office of the priesthood. So, then, at the great disappointment, the Advent people stood, as it were, at the Red Sea.

"Had they still trusted to the guiding Hand that had been with them in their past experience, they would have seen the salvation of God. If all who had labored unitedly in the work in 1844 had received the third angel's message, and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts. A flood of light would have been shed upon the world. Years ago the inhabitants of the earth would have been warned, the closing work completed, and Christ would have come for the redemption of His people."--Ibid.

When? [Voices]: Years ago.

Where, then, have that people been since the disappointment? [Voices]: In the wilderness.

As verily as Israel was before. But why were Israel of old kept in the wilderness? Because of unbelief. They didn't see what the Lord had for them. And the reason they did not see, was because they did not believe God. If they had believed God, they would have seen what they did not see. And that is the trouble with this people here. We have not believed the things that were said to Israel of old. They are said to us as well as to them. Precisely the same gospel is preached to us as was preached to them. "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest." (Hebrews 4:1-3)

So then, what kept them out of the land is precisely what is keeping us out of the land. And, as I said last night, we have no business here at all by right, because we ought not to be in the world. As Israel had no business at all in the wilderness forty years, so we have no more business being here in this wilderness. Listen:

"It was not the will of God that Israel should wander forty years in the wilderness; He desired to lead them directly to the land of Canaan, and establish them there, a holy, happy people. But "they could not enter in because of unbelief." Because of their backsliding and apostasy they perished in the desert, and others were raised up to enter the Promised Land. In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed, and His people should remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow. But unbelief separated them from God. As they refused to do the work which He had appointed them, others were raised up to proclaim the message. In mercy to the world, Jesus delays His coming, that sinners may have an opportunity to hear the warning, and find in Him a shelter before the wrath of God shall be poured out."--Id., p. 458.

"It was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed, and His people remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow." Ah, we are responsible for that. Is not that so? Where does the responsibility lie? In what thing are we guilty? Unbelief. But what was in the hearts of Israel that caused their unbelief? Egypt, Egypt, Egypt. What, then, has been in the hearts of these people that has caused this unbelief and this holding back from God? Egypt, as certainly as Egypt ever did over yonder. Spiritually that which is Egypt-the world, idolatry, darkness, which is unbelief. The word "unbelief" expresses it all. You know that the very word "Egypt" is a symbol of darkness. Look again at this passage:

"If all who had labored unitedly in the work in 1844 had received the third angel's message and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts."--Ibid.

As the Lord wrought mightily with their efforts in the beginning of the work, what is the reason of the lack? Lack of the Holy Spirit. The only lack is the power of the Holy Spirit. That is what gives us the power, and what works the mighty works. It is the 
Holy Ghost; and if that had been received, "A flood of light would have been shed upon the world."--Ibid. This is what is stated in Revelation, the 18th chapter: "Another angel came down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory." (Revelation 18:1)

That is precisely the same that is pointed out here. What keeps back that flood of light? Has that flood of light been waiting to burst forth upon the world, ever since that time? Yes. What has kept it back after 1844? Unbelief. What has kept it back since? Unbelief. Is it not time, then, that we found deliverance from Egyptian bondage? Oh think of it! The message would have been proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit; the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts; a flood of light would have been shed upon the world; years ago the inhabitants of the world would have been warned, the closing work completed, and Christ would have come for the redemption of His people! Oh let us then no longer delay! Why shall we not have deliverance from Egypt, and from all that is implied in the word,--spiritual Egypt? Let the Holy Ghost be given and bring that mighty power to work for sinners; that that flood of light may lighten the world; that the world may be warned; that Christ may come; that we may be redeemed from this world of sin and sorrow.

Now you see the situation so far. Egyptian darkness and bondage has been upon us all these years, as certainly as it was upon Israel after they had crossed the Red Sea, and while they were in the wilderness. And God has offered to feed His people also with bread from heaven--bread that He can approve, bread that He can give to them that will bring about such a condition that He can bless them with every spiritual blessing. But here so many even yet say: "Oh, our soul loathes this light bread. Let us go back to Egypt where we can have onions and leeks and garlics." (Numbers 21:5; 14:3-4; 11:5)

If that is health reform, I don't want any of it. Where have we been? Shall we allow the Lord to feed us? Shall we accept the bill of fare from God? Or shall we long for the leeks and onions and garlics, and the flesh-pots of Egypt? That is the question!

You have agreed now that this is the situation, that Egyptian bondage is the cause of all this, and that unbelief is the cause of the Egyptian bondage. You have agreed that we need not now, as the others needed not, to wait longer to be delivered from Egyptian bondage. Now we will study a moment, how that deliverance shall be; and the key of it is in these words: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 14:12)

Modifying the Ten Commandments

Let us turn to the commandments of God, and look at them a moment, in the 20th chapter of Exodus. If any further evidence was wanted that we are yet under the influence of Egyptian bondage, certainly this thing is the cap-sheaf that fixes the evidence. Till very lately, you and I never saw a copy of the ten commandments, issued by the Seventh-day Adventists, that had all the ten commandments in it. I never did until very lately. And yet we have talked about keeping the commandments; we have preached to other people about the commandments; we have pointed out how Rome has changed the commandments and left out the fourth and divided the tenth, while all the time we ourselves, from our published copies of the commandments, or the ones that we bought that somebody else had published, have left out a part of the commandments ourselves.

God spoke His law from heaven. Did He speak more than belongs with the commandments? Did He speak too much? Did He speak more than was needed? No; for it was perfect, and there was nothing to be added when He ceased speaking. Well then, as there was nothing to be added when He ceased speaking, did He begin before He needed to? As there was nothing to be added when He ceased speaking, is there something before He began to speak directly to us for our good? In other words, did He speak a word too much or a word too little? No! no! no!

Let us see, then, what He said. Here it is: "And God spoke all these words, saying, ... You shall have no other Gods before me." (Exodus 20:1,3)

Is that where He begins? Does He begin speaking with, "You shall have no other gods before me?" No. Have you begun there? You know you have. Well, if God did not begin there, and you and I do begin there, don't we leave out something that He said, that is essential for our good, too? Where did He begin? Read it. "And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God. which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:1-3)

Don't you see that we have left out the very thing that shows deliverance from Egyptian bondage? And why have we left it out?

• Oh, because we have considered that we have not been delivered from Egypt,-and that is so.

• We have considered that we never were brought out of the land of Egypt,-and by our unbelief that is so.

• We have thought, "We were never in bondage to any man." But we were. We were in bondage to ourselves, to the power of sin--to spiritual Egypt.

But there is deliverance from Egyptian bondage tonight, and God calls you and me to this deliverance from Egyptian bondage. And He says to you and me tonight, with a voice thundering as it did from Sinai, with the salvation of Jesus Christ in it: "I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." (Exodus 20:2)

Will you come out? Will you allow that He has delivered you from the land of Egypt? from the house of bondage? If not, why not? Our enemies are throwing it at us: "Oh, those commandments are not for me. I never was brought out from Egypt."

The enemies of the law of God, the enemies of the salvation of God, cast that at you. They have said it to me-to all of us-that that law is not binding on anybody but the Jews, because nobody was ever delivered from Egyptian bondage but the Jews. They say: "Oh, you need not preach that to me, I never was brought from Egypt."

That is true enough, of course; but that is no credit to them. You and I are to stand up like those that are redeemed from Egyptian bondage, and answer that thing with: "Thank the Lord, I have been brought out of Egypt; and, my poor, forlorn brother, unless you are delivered from Egypt, you will perish in the corruption of Egypt."

The Bondage of Sin

Of course no one can keep that law while he is in Egypt. They could not do it. God delivered them from Egypt that they might keep the law. To be in Egypt is to be in sin, and no man can keep the law of God in sin; for sin itself is the transgression of the law. Of course you can't keep the commandments while you are in Egypt. You can't; I can't. But let the Lord deliver us, and then we can keep the commandments, and not until then. The Lord knew that well enough; therefore, when He wanted Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go, He said: "Let my people go, that they may serve me." (Exodus 8:1)

Of course they could not serve God in Egypt. He wanted them delivered, not only bodily, but spiritually. And then, when He would give them His law to keep, the first thing that He says to them is, "I am the Lord your God which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," (Exodus 20:2) so that they might keep it. What kind of law is this anyhow? A spiritual law. "We know that the law is spiritual." (Romans 7:14)

What Egypt is it, then, in the first verse of the law? It is spiritual Egypt. "The law is spiritual." The Egypt, then, named in the law is spiritual Egypt, and it means to you and me deliverance from spiritual Egypt, which is deliverance from the bondage of sin. [S. H. Lane]: You think they were spiritually out of Egypt for a while?

It is hard to say. Moses was always, of course; Caleb always was; Joshua always was.
[E. J. Waggoner]: The seventy elders saw God.

Yes; they saw God. It is hard to tell, though, about the people being out of Egypt. Moses always was. Even while he was in physical Egypt, he was spiritually out of it. Caleb and Joshua were always spiritually out of Egypt. In the triumphant song at the Red Sea, the whole congregation, I have thought, were spiritually out of Egypt, if they had held fast to that. As the Lord said: "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries." (Psalm 81:13-14)

But when their faith was tried, in the very first step they took, when they were at Marah, where there was bitter water, they threw their faith away, and wished they were back in Egypt again. When we come to a bitter experience, shall we take it as an evidence that the Lord has forsaken us? No; thank the Lord that the bitter experience is for our good, and God is able to turn the bitter into sweet. [Voice]: Pardon me, Brother Jones, but here is a verse-the twenty-seventh verse of the 11th chapter of Hebrews-which shows that Moses did turn away from Egypt right there in Egypt.

Assuredly. So that while bodily in Egypt, he was spiritually out of Egypt.
[E. J. Waggoner]: The ransomed of the Lord shall come with singing into Zion.

Yes; and if they had kept on singing the song of Moses, and in the faith with which they sung it then, they would have gone on singing into the land. And that is what God wants us to keep in our minds. He wants us to put our hearts over in that good land; and then, our hearts being there, the longing of our lives will be there. And then God can soon fill our lives with the joy of that blessed land. And that is, God with us. (Matthew 1:23)

You know well enough that even now, instead of the heart being over in that land, it is here in this land. To some of our own folks, to ask a person to separate from this country seems like treason. To ask a person to separate from this country, and go over into that land, and let the offices and politics of this nation alone, seems to them almost like an imposition. That people are in Egypt, but God has called them out of Egypt, to set their hearts upon the better country, place all their affections there, and work for that country with every energy of their being; so that the streams of joy and glory from that land may flow into their hearts; so that all the world and all the universe may know that God is their God of a truth. When that is done, it will take but a short time for the work to be accomplished, and the Lord to come.

When the children of Israel were at the Red Sea, the power of God there manifested, astonished the nations, insomuch that when the spies went into the land, Rahab said, "The fear and the dread of you is upon all the land, because we have heard what God has done for you, and the hearts of the people are melted." (See Joshua 2:9-11)

That is true.

Jesus Called Out of Egypt

Another thought as to spiritual Egypt, it is written of Jesus: "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matthew 2:15)

Why is that written about Jesus? Why did Jesus go into Egypt? Why was He taken into Egypt? He could have escaped the slaughter of the children that were slain in Bethlehem, by going a short distance away from that place, and would not have had to go nearly so far as to Egypt. All of the little children in Palestine were not slain when the decree of Herod went forth. It was only Bethlehem, and its coasts, and its suburbs. Bethlehem was only six miles from Jerusalem, and the children in Jerusalem were not slain; so the Lord could have escaped if He had been taken ten or twelve miles away.

Then why was He taken into Egypt? Oh that it might be fulfilled that was written: "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matthew 2:15)

He was ourselves; yourself and myself. He was ourselves; and as God met His people in Egypt and led them out, so our Saviour came to where we are, and was as we are, and was called out of Egypt, thus showing that whoever would be as He is, must likewise come out of Egypt. He was the Son of God, and was called out of Egypt, thus showing that all who will be sons of God must also come out of Egypt; for it is written of all as of Him: "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matthew 2:15)

Are you a son of God? "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matthew 2:15)

A little while ago we saw that we must be brought out of Egypt, in order to keep the commandments of God. Now we see that in order to follow Jesus, we must be called out of Egypt. To keep the commandments of God, demands that we be brought out of Egypt; faith in Jesus demands likewise that we be brought out of Egypt. And both these are expressed in: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 14:12)

Thus you see that from beginning to end there is a spiritual Egypt; and the whole plan of salvation is simply deliverance from Egyptian bondage by the power of God; it is being called out of Egypt, "into the glorious liberty of the sons of God." (Romans 8:21)

• Shall we then come out of Egypt, that we may serve the Lord indeed?

• Shall we have it so that we may in truth keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus? What shall we do?

• Shall we go away from this Conference in Egypt?

• Shall we remain at this Conference and remain in Egypt?

• Oh shall we not be delivered wholly from Egypt and all that is implied in the word?

Deliverance is free for us, it is given to us. Oh then, let every heart be opened, every soul be turned to God, and seek Him by confession of sin, that we may be delivered from darkness; and thus that we may, before the Conference closes, be delivered into the glorious light and liberty of the sons of God; for, "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matthew 2:15)

That is what He waits for. Shall we keep Him waiting? And when that comes, this word will be fulfilled; the third angel's message will be proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit; the Lord will work mightily with our efforts; a flood of light will be shed upon the world; soon the inhabitants of the world will be warned; the closing work will be completed; and Christ will come for the redemption of His people.--See The Great Controversy, p. 458
 
Oh, we are nearer to the time when God will deliver us than we have ever dreamed, I am thinking. God's deliverance is so near to us! Shall we walk into the land? Israel failed because they did not believe. They did not see wondrous things in His promises. Those promises are now for us. They are to be as real to you and me as they were to Him when He gave them to Israel, to whom they were not real. You know it is written: "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God." (Revelation 15:2-3)

Ah, but the song of Moses, the servant of God, was the song of deliverance from Egyptian bondage; and those that get the victory over the beast and his name and his image and the number of his name,-from what are they delivered? They are delivered from Egyptian bondage, as surely as was Moses. And they sing the song of Moses, because they, too, are delivered from Egyptian bondage. The Bible is full of it. Spiritually we have been in Egypt, and oh, may God deliver us out of it. Then shall we sing this song unto the Lord: "I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him a habitation." (Exodus 15:1-2)

Will you? will you? "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; they shall be my people, and I will be their God. Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:16-18)

But, "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matthew 2:15) "[He is] my father's God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is His name.	Pharaoh's chariots and his host has He cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Your right hand, Oh Lord, is become glorious in power: your right hand, Oh Lord, has dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of your excellency You have overthrown them that rose up against You: You sent forth your wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. You blew with your wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto You, Oh Lord, among the gods? who is like unto You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretch out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You in your mercy have led forth the people which You have redeemed." (Exodus 15:2-13)

That is what it says: "You ... have led forth the people which You have redeemed." (Exodus 15:13)

Has He redeemed you? Redeemed from what? Redeemed from sin. And sin is spiritual Egypt. "You have guided them in your strength unto your holy habitation." (Exodus 15:13)

Let Him. "The people shall hear, and be afraid." (Exodus 15:14)

The time has come to sing the song of Moses. Shall we sing it? But we shall not sing it in Egypt. You cannot sing it if you are in Egypt, because they could not sing it until they were delivered out of Egypt. "The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed: the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of your arm they shall be as still as a stone; till your people pass over, Oh Lord, till the people pass over, which You have purchased. You shall bring them in." (Exodus 15:14-17)

Who shall He bring in? What do you say? Who shall the Lord bring into His habitation? You? Are you out of Egypt? "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matthew 2:15) "You shall...plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place, Oh Lord, which You have made for yourself to dwell in." (Exodus 15:17)

Then we will dwell there with the Lord, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. "In the Sanctuary, Oh Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea." (Exodus 15:17-21)

"Out of Egypt have I called you," says the Lord, and out of Egypt we have come. Now He says, "I am your God, and you are my people." (Exodus 6:7) "I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;" (Exodus 20:2) and, "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matthew 2:15)

And this is what it means today when it says: Here are they, here are they, "Here Are They which keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 14:12) [Congregation sings]:

Redeemed! how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child, and forever, I am.

--General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 5, 1897--Friday Evening, March 5, 1897

Chapter 5 - The Apostasy of Israel

In the lesson the other evening I stated that I had never seen until lately a copy of the ten commandments published by Seventh-day Adventists, outside of the Bible, that was as God spoke them. I am glad that the time has come when Seventh-day Adventists can have a copy of God's law as God gave it. I am glad that Brother Howe has gotten out copies of the law of God, as God gave it. And now let us not leave ourselves open any longer to the same charge as others, of leaving out part of the law of God, when we go before the people.

A Mutilated Law

You can see plainly enough that the man who first gave out that copy of the law of God that nearly everybody else uses, was an Egyptian. It says: "I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." (Exodus 20:2)
 
But he said to himself: "That does not apply to me, nor to anybody living nowadays; for we have never been brought out of Egypt. That was only for the Jews."

He therefore left it out and printed the rest of the law, and thus presented to the world a mutilated copy of the law which the Lord himself gave. He thus caused it to appear that the only document that the Lord ever spoke from heaven began without telling who was the author of it, without even introducing Him, but began just in a blunt, indefinite way: "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3)

The question might well at once arise: "Who in the world are you? Who is it that is talking?"

Well, when the law is taken as it was given, God tells who it is that is talking. "I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." (Exodus 20:2)

That is who it is that is talking: "You shall have no other gods before me, I who am able to redeem from the bondage of Egypt."

Another thought just here is important: When the law is printed without the introduction that the Lord himself spoke, as it usually is on charts and cards, it is found necessary to place at the head of it the words, "The Law of God." This shows that men realize the necessity that there shall be some sort of certificate as to whose law it is, and who it is that speaks these commandments. And, seeing this necessity, men put at the head of the law of God their certificate that it is the law of God.

But if they would only print the law as the Lord gave it, they would have the Lord's own certificate that it is the law of God, and that it is He himself who speaks these commandments. He says: "I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:2-3)

And when men can have the Lord's own certificate that it is His law, surely there will be no need of any man's certificate that it is the law of God. And is not the Lord's certificate that this is His law, better than the certificate of any man or of all men together? And when men leave out the Lord's own certificate that this is His law, and put their own certificate there, could there be any clearer case of men putting themselves in the place of God?

Oh, let us put away this high-handed, bungling work; and let us take the holy law as its holy Author spoke it and wrote it!

Amen. Let it be so. Having there all that the Lord spoke, the law of God then presents to the world both the Redeemer and the Creator. It then tells all men that He who is the Author of that law, that He who calls man to its observance, is both Redeemer and Creator. This is shown by the law itself.

And when they leave out the part that reveals the Redeemer, it is no wonder that they are willing and ready to leave out the part that reveals the Creator of man. Satan always wanted to get rid of the law, and to hide from men its importance. He started with having the Redeemer left out of it; and now he ends with having the Creator left out of it. But the Lord wants us to know that it is He who delivered us from Egypt, so we shall be able to see both the Redeemer and the Creator in the law which He gave for man.

The Real Land of Promise

Another thing. When you and I can see, and do see, that Israel, when they went into the land, did not go at all into the land that the Lord intended for them, but missed it altogether, we can see how it was a disappointment to Moses not to go there. Now when it appears, as it does to some people, that Israel went into the land the Lord had prepared for them, and that that was exactly where the Lord wanted to take them, and then see that Moses died and went to heaven, they say that Moses had the best of the bargain after all; and that it was not so much of a disappointment to take him out of the land and take him to heaven.

But when we understand that the Lord wanted to take him into His holy habitation, into the place He had made for himself to dwell in, into the sanctuary that His hands had established; then we can see how it was a disappointment even for Moses to die and go to heaven without entering into that land. When he could see that it was his sin that had something to do with keeping them out of the blessed land of promise; when he could see that Israel had missed what the Lord had for them; when he saw the glorious land, as he did from the top of Nebo, and was obliged to contemplate the long ages of wandering, of apostasy, and of trouble, through which the cause and people of God were to pass, and know that he had even a little to do with causing that long course of wandering; it is easy enough to see what a grievous disappointment it was to him not to enter that land without dying at all-even though he was taken to heaven from the grave.

One other text, if anyone were needed to settle the fact that Israel did not get out of Egypt as long as they were in the wilderness, is found in the book of Joshua. You remember the passage,--after they had crossed Jordan, then they were circumcised,--it is written: "This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you." (Joshua 5:9)

Those people, you see, who left Egypt, never got out of Egypt till they had crossed Jordan; for not until then was the reproach of Egypt taken away. Then they were all converted men. That whole nation crossed Jordan by faith. It was a nation that believed God, and there was not a dissenting voice nor a doubting thought,-then they were out of Egypt. Thus you see that it is perfectly evident that spiritual Egypt is the literal Egypt of the Bible.

Not Reckoned Among the Nations

Now we turn to the text for tonight. It is Balaam as he is prophesying for Balak, king of Moab: "And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord has not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: Lo, the People Shall Dwell Alone, and Shall Not Be Reckoned Among the Nations." (Numbers 23:7-9)

This text is spoken to us here tonight. This is present truth. This was God's expressed will concerning His people when they were on the border of the land to which He wanted to take them when He had called them out of the land of Egypt. They had wandered in the wilderness forty years, and now had come to the border of the land. And this is His will concerning them, that they should dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations.

The fundamental reason for that, or one of the reasons, we would better say, you will get hold of by turning to the 7th chapter of Acts. Stephen was speaking that day, and told that the Lord brought the people out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage with wonders and signs, and in the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth verses you have these words; in the thirty-eighth verse is the particular passage: "This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall you hear. This is He, that was in the church in the wilderness." (Acts 7:37-38)

Then what was Israel in the wilderness? The church. What was it to be when they had crossed the river and had entered the land? The church. What was that saying but that there should be a separation between church and state? Just as, when He brought Abraham out of that country, the Lord taught the world separation between church and state, and just as He showed by Abraham that separation of church and state must begin in the heart of the individual.

If I am not separated in my heart from the state, there will be a union of church and state wherever I am. And so, even though I do not hold office in the state, or run for office there, I will be a politician in the church; and I will run for office there, and wirepull there. So that if a man is not in heart separated from the state, and yet belongs to the church, he would better take part in the politics of the world and be a politician there, than to run his politics into the church. So when the Lord called Abraham, He said, first of all, "Get out of your country." (Genesis 12:1)

And now that Abraham has increased and become the church, and that church is about to enter the special service of the Lord before the nations, He declares that the church should not be reckoned among the nations; they should dwell alone. You can see how the Lord wanted the people to hold to that, because He knew what the nations were; and He knew how the nations had reached that condition. He wanted His church to dwell alone, to have no ruler but himself, no law but His law, no legislation of any kind but the Lord's word, no government but the Lord's.

God intended, when He brought them into the land, to be the head of the church. Jesus Christ was the head of the church, of course, just as really as He is now. You know from the lessons we have studied, how the people got into kingship, monarchy, and so on; it was by departing from Him, by failing to recognize God as their only Ruler, His law as the only law. They became idolators, and so lost the government of God over themselves, and the power of His law upon them; and having separated from God, there had to be a government among them to satisfy the ambition of those who wanted to rule their fellows, and to protect them from themselves in their savagery, because of having departed 
from God.

But the Lord separated Israel from all people and governments, unto himself. The Lord started Israel now just where He started Abraham, to be separated from the kings and rulers all around them, from all sorts of earthly government round about them. He wanted His people to dwell alone, and not to be such as could be reckoned among any of the nations, so that when the nations looked on them, they should see that Israel could not be reckoned as of their kind.

He wanted Israel to stand before the world so distinctly-and this would make them distinct from all other nations-that all the nations looking upon them would say: "That is singular; that is not the kind of government ours is. They have no king; each one just seems to get along without any ruler."

And they would begin to inquire into that; they would say: "What is the cause of this? How is it you get along without all this paraphernalia of a king, and armies, and taxes, and all these things that we have to endure?"

The answer would be: "Why, God is our king. And it doesn't take nearly such an expense to run His government as it does yours; for we don't have any such troubles as you have. Yes; we have no taxes, and He is so good that we love to give to Him everything we have, to support and spread abroad the blessings of His government."

And when His people should tell the heathen that, the heathen would say: "Surely this nation is a wise and understanding people. ... And what nation on the earth is so great, that has judgments so wise, so good, as all this law? ... And what nation has God so nigh unto them as the Lord your God is, in all things that you call upon Him for?" (Deuteronomy 4:6,8,7)

That is what the Lord intended. And He said, "[Israel] shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." (Numbers 23:9)

He intended to teach all the world a separation of church and state, not only in the church, but among the nations, as respects the states, and also as respects the church itself. Just look here at the scripture, and you will see that. Deuteronomy 4. A few verses tell the whole that I have sketched. Beginning with the first verse, reading to the eighth: "Now therefore hearken, Oh Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers gives you. You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor: for all the men that followed Baal-peor, the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you. But you that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land whither you go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations; which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who has God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" (Deuteronomy 4:1-8)

Then was there any place for the making of any kind of law or legislation among Israel? "You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it." (Deuteronomy 4:2)

They were to do just that. Their laws were all made for them. Their legislation was all completed, and was perfect; and as long as they had that, they needed no other, and just as soon as it came about that they needed another, that was evidence itself that they had forsaken God.

Human Legislation a Result of Rejecting God

So long as they needed any kind of legislation, of themselves, among themselves, that was evidence that they had forsaken God, that His law was not enough for them anymore, and that His government was not sufficient for them anymore. That is precisely the way it is with all the rest of the heathen. That is the way with all the nations. That is how they became heathen. And you know that Israel went over that very same course. They forgot God and went into idolatry, and then said: "We must have a king, so that we may be like all the nations." (1 Samuel 8:5,20)

But do not forget that they had to reject God before they could have a king; and in rejecting God, that they might be like the nations, like the heathen,--that is what the literal thought is,--in rejecting God that they might be like the nations, they became like the nations that rejected God. You know this by all the following history.

It is perfectly plain, therefore, that it is not God's will, it is not for the interests of His people, that they shall be like the nations. It is not the will of God, it is not for the good of the people, that they shall have any kind of government like the nations that are around about them. You know these did not arise from following God, but they arose from apostasy. From all this, it is perfectly plain that God did not intend that His people should set up a government of themselves among themselves.

The Lord did not intend that they should set up a government like the nations around them. When He says, "You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it," (Deuteronomy 4:2) you can see that He thus shut them off from any law-making of any kind, from any shadow of legislation of any sort, and thus prohibited them from ever setting up any form of government among themselves.

And from this it is perfectly clear that when they found the need of any sort of government among themselves, in which they must have laws and rulers other than God, that of itself was proof positive that they had forgotten God; that they had gone away from Him; that His government was not enough; that His power was not upon them to hold them, and so they must make and establish some form of government of their own, to protect themselves from themselves.

Thus you see that it was not according to the Lord's will that His people, dwelling alone, should have a government of their own among themselves. It was not His will that they should dwell among the nations, and have a government like the nations; because when they should undertake to make a government of their own to govern themselves among themselves, that would be just like the governments of the nations, because they were all human, and humanity is all alike. So when Israel did undertake to set up a government to govern themselves, it was like these around them, and it could not be anything else. It was heathenish. And it always will be heathenish wherever it is attempted. "You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." (Deuteronomy 4:2)

God intends that His commandments, His law, His government, shall be enough for His people. And it is enough for His people. That is settled. It always will be enough for His people. But it is not enough for those who do not have it; it is not enough for those who separate from God and from His law and government. His government is not enough for them, then, because they do not have it; and then if they make one of their own, it is just like that of the heathen. "Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor: for all the men that followed Baal-peor, the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you. But you that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land whither you go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations." (Deuteronomy 4:3-6)

"This is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations." Not simply in "my sight"; but do this, and all the nations, the heathen, will say you are wise. The nations, the heathen, will say you have good sense. "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land whither you go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who has God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from you heart all the days of your life: but teach them your sons, and your sons' sons; Specially the day that you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb." (Deuteronomy 4:5-10)

"Do not forget what you have seen and heard, but especially do not forget what you heard when you stood before Horeb that day." What did they hear? Oh, the law of God; the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus they heard that day; a voice from heaven proclaimed redemption and creation, that men should sin not. But Israel forgot God, and became idolatrous, and said: "Make us a king; make us a king, like all the nations."

Separation of Church and State in the Heart

But of that time, while they were undefiled, the Lord said afterward: "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto Him: but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied you." (Psalm 81:13-16)

Now the Lord says of us that: "[He] has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." (Colossians 1:13) The kingdom of God is established again among His people, (Exodus 25:8) and: "The kingdom of God is within you," (Luke 17:21) and it is among you by being within each one and all. Now then, the kingdom of God is a perfect kingdom, because the king is a perfect king, because the law of that kingdom is a perfect law. Then is a perfect king, and a perfect law, and a perfect kingdom, sufficient for you? Is it? Is that enough for a man? Oh yes, assuredly! Ought it to be enough for a man?

And if all that is not enough for a man, is the trouble with the kingdom, or with the man? You know that the trouble can be only with the man. But suppose the man professes to be a Christian. Is the trouble still with the man, or with the kingdom? [Voices]: With the man.

Suppose he professes to be a Seventh-day Adventist, and the kingdom of God is not sufficient for him; suppose you get a crowd of them together, and the kingdom of God is not sufficient for them, but they must have a kingdom of their own, another kingdom; they must set up a government, must tax themselves, choose off rulers from among themselves to govern themselves:

• Are they God's children?

• Is God's perfect kingdom enough for them?

• Do they belong to the government of God?

• Is God's government enough for them?

• Is the kingdom of God in them? Is it?

How can it be, when the perfect kingdom, and the perfect king, and the perfect law, is not enough for them?

You see, then, that separation of church and state, even among Seventh-day Adventists, begins in the heart; and it must begin there with every man, everywhere, or there can be no separation of church and state where he is. If no man in the fourth century, in the Roman Empire, had a union of church and state in his own heart, there would not have been a papacy formed in the fourth century. If he had only the church, the church alone, in his heart, and none of the state, none of principles of the state, only the church,-God, His kingdom, His law, His righteousness, He alone ruling there,-could there ever have been a papacy? [Voices]: No.

Then what is the thing that is essential always to avoid? Any union of church and state in the heart. What, then, is the only sure safeguard against a papacy?

• It is to love God with all the heart, and all the soul, and all the mind, and all the strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30)

• It is to "get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house." (Genesis 12:1)

• It is to turn your back upon Egypt. (Hebrews 11:24-27)

• It is to "dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations." (Numbers 23:9)

I read now from Empires of the Bible, page 152 and onward, some quotations that I inserted there from Patriarchs and Prophets, with scriptures, upon this very connection. First I read some of my own words; but I will tell you when I read the words of Patriarchs and Prophets. "Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." The Lord never intended that His people should be formed into a kingdom, or state, or government, like the people of this world. They were not to be like the nations around them. They were to be separated unto God "from all the people that were upon the face of the earth." "The people shall not be reckoned among the nations."--A. T. Jones, Empires of the Bible, p. 152
 
Now if I reckon myself as belonging to the state of Germany, then am I reckoning myself among the nations? If I reckon myself as belonging to the government of England, a part of it, a loyal and patriotic citizen, who would fight for the flag, am I reckoning myself among the nations? And if I fight for that flag, my flag, my British flag, and my Seventh-day Adventist brother over here belongs to the United States, and is loyal and patriotic, and the two nations get into war, and he must repel invasions, and there is a conflict, then I am on one side, and my brother is on the other, and brother is fighting against brother. Has God ordained that? You know that He has not. Then did He ever mean anything when He said that the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations?

Rejecting the Government of God

I read on a little of my own writing in Empires of the Bible: "Their government was to be a theocracy pure and simple--God their only King, their only Ruler, their only Lawgiver. It was, indeed, a church organization, beginning with the organization of "the church in the wilderness;" and was to be separated from every idea of a state. The system formed in the wilderness through Moses, and continued in Canaan through Joshua, was intended to be perpetual."--Ibid.

Now I read from Patriarchs and Prophets: "The government of Israel was administered in the name and by the authority of Jehovah. The work of Moses, of the seventy elders, of the rulers and judges, was simply to enforce the laws that God had given. They had no authority to legislate for the nation. Who had no authority to legislate for the nation?"--Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 603. [Voices]: The church.

How many composed the church? Did that take in one, or two, or ten, or twelve, or any fifty? Yes. Then did they, or any of them, have any authority to legislate for the rest, or even for themselves? They did not. "Hearken, Oh Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers gives you. You shall not add aught unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it." (Deuteronomy 4:1-2)

Quoting again now from Patriarchs and Prophets: "This was, and continued to be, the condition of Israel's existence as a nation."--Ibid.
 
Then when Israel departed from that, and took the step to form a kingdom, and be like the nations, what did that mean? The loss of existence. Do not forget that. Now another paragraph which I have written, and which I want to repeat now: "The principles of the government of Israel were solely those of a pure theocracy. In any government it is only loyalty to the principles of the government on the part of the citizens, that can make it a success."--A. T. Jones, Empires of the Bible, p. 153.

That is universally held to be so. What government are we considering here? The government of God. Of what government were they citizens? The government of God. Then loyalty to the principles of that government was the only thing that could make that government and that rulership a success, even with God.

It was only by the constantly abiding presence of God with Israel, that the government there established could possibly be a success. Loyalty to the principles of that government, therefore, on the part of the people demanded that each one of the people should constantly court the abiding presence of God with himself, as the sole King, Ruler, and Lawgiver, in all the conduct of his daily life. But "without faith it is impossible to please Him." It is "by faith" that God dwells in the heart and rules in the life. Therefore the fundamental principle, indeed the very existence, of the government of Israel, lay in a living, abiding faith on the part of the people of Israel.

And just here is where Israel failed. In fact it is the only place where they could fail. They did not abide in faith; they did not remain loyal to their King and government. The people who entered the land, who by faith crossed the River Jordan on dry ground when the river was altogether on a flood, by whose faith the walls of Jericho fell down flat when they had compassed it about seven days, and had shouted the victorious shout of faith,- these people believed the Lord, and He was with them in power. But a change came. The people lost the purity of the faith, and fell into formalism. The story is told for us in a few terse verses in the Scriptures.

"The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that He did for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died being a hundred and ten years old. ... And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which know not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth."--A. T. Jones, Empires of the Bible, p. 153-154.

That is precisely as they did in Nimrod's time. What was the consequence in Nimrod's time? They set up one of themselves as king, having rejected God as king. Is there anything strange, then, that the consequence should be the same with Israel now in this time?

"Not having the presence of God in the heart to separate them even from themselves, and so make them unlike other people, they were so like the nations round about that it was natural enough that they should fall in with them in the worship of their gods.

When, in consequence of their apostasy, the burden of their own doings and the oppressions of the heathen became so heavy that they could no longer endure it, they would turn unto the Lord with all the heart, would put their trust in Him alone, and thus in Him would find glorious deliverance from their sins and from all their oppressors.

But finding themselves delivered, they failed still to cultivate and court the presence of their Lord and Deliverer; therefore their religion again became formal, and they soon again adopted the ways of the heathen, and worshiped their gods.

If only they had set their hearts upon the Lord and trusted Him all the time, as they did in these fits of reform, they would have found Him to be to them all the time just what He was on these occasions. Then their whole course would have been what He always desired that it should be-one continual progress onward and upward, growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord our Saviour. Then they would have been a bright and shining light to all the nations.

Instead of being brought by these repeated experiences to the point where they would finally and forever distrust themselves, and trust the Lord only, they actually arrived at the state where they finally distrusted the Lord, and proposed wholly to trust in themselves. In their unbelief and apostasy, they could see in the continued raids of the heathen, by which the country was sacked and the people oppressed, only an evidence that for all practical purposes the government of God had failed."--A. T. Jones, Empires of the Bible, p. 154-155

Now quoting again from Patriarchs and Prophets: "All the evils which were the result of their own sin and folly, they charged upon the government of God."--Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 605.

You see, then, when any people who profess to be the Lord's, need any other government than His, what is the trouble. They have departed from God; they have got into evil; they are suffering evils of many kinds; and these they charge back to the government of God. The government of God was not good enough for them; it did not do enough for them. Why? Because they did not have it.

I read on from Patriarchs and Prophets: "Gradually they lost their reverence for God, and ceased to prize the honor of being His chosen people. Attracted by the pomp and display of heathen monarchs, they tired of their own simplicity. Jealousy and envy sprung up between the tribes. Internal dissensions made them weak; they were continually exposed to the invasion of their heathen foes; and the people were coming to believe that in order to maintain their standing among the nations, the tribes must be united under a strong central government. As they departed from obedience to God's law, they desired to be freed from the rule of their divine Sovereign; and thus the demand for a monarchy became wide-spread throughout Israel."--Idem, p. 603

I now read from what I have written in Empires of the Bible: "It was the same story of Babylon and Egypt over again. The arch-deceiver seduced them into idolatry, and from idolatry into monarchy, in order that he might gain supremacy over them, and by earthly influences entice them, or by force prohibit them, from the service of God.--A. T. Jones, Empires of the Bible, p. 155

And you know that Israel did persecute the prophets, they did prohibit the preaching of the word of God, just as every other heathen nation on the earth has done from Nimrod's time until tonight, and just as every other heathen nation will do, even though it be set up by Seventh-day Adventists. Now I quote again from Patriarchs and Prophets:

"God desired His people to look to Him alone as their Law-giver and their Source of strength. Feeling their dependence upon God, they would be constantly drawn nearer to Him. They would become elevated and ennobled, fitted for the high destiny to which He had called them as His chosen people. But when a man was placed upon the throne, it would tend to turn the minds of the people from God."--Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 606.

And I do not care if he is a Seventh-day Adventist; it tends to turn the minds of the people from God. I read on from Patriarchs and Prophets: "They would trust more to human strength and less to divine power."--Ibid.

Did they need protection from the heathen? Yes. Were not the heathen attacking them, and making raids against them? Yes. Did they need protection? Yes. Why did they set up a government? For protection-for protection against the raids of the heathen.

What did the Lord say if they would obey Him and obey His laws? At the time of the feasts, the men could all leave their homes, and go up to Jerusalem, and nobody would do them any damage, or desire their land. But when they departed from God, and did not have His protection, they could not leave their houses but that the heathen would come in. And even while they were all at home, the heathen would come in upon them. When their wheat was ripe and ready for harvest, the heathen would come in and take it all, even when the men were all at home. And when the grapes were ripe and ready for gathering, the heathen would come in and gather them all. Why? Because the people had departed from God, and He could not bless them in their departure as He would bless them when they were with Him, because to do so would only have encouraged them in their departure.

So then: "When a man was placed upon the throne, it would tend to turn the minds of the people from God. They would trust more to human strength and less to divine power, and the errors of their kind would lead them into sin, and separate the nation from God."--Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 606.
 
Accordingly they said to Samuel: "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations." (1 Samuel 8:5)

Now I quote again from Patriarchs and Prophets, another passage that comes right down to the present: "And still."

Where does that bring it? To the present. "The longing to conform to worldly practices and customs exists among the professed people of God. As they depart from the Lord, they become ambitious for the gains and honors of the world. Christians are constantly seeking to imitate the practices of those who worship the god of this world. Many urge that by uniting with worldlings, and conforming to their customs, they might exert a stronger influence over the ungodly."-- Idem, p. 607

That is what Israel said. "But all who pursue this course, thereby separate from the Source of their strength. Becoming the friends of the world, they are the enemies of God. For the sake of earthly distinction, they sacrifice the unspeakable honor to which God has called them, of showing forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light."--Ibid.
 
Now I read on, of Israel back yonder: "Like all the nations. The Israelites did not realize that to be in this respect unlike other nations was a special privilege and blessing. God had separated the Israelites from every other people, to make them His own peculiar treasure. But they, disregarding this high honor, eagerly desired to imitate the example of the heathen."--Ibid.

I still read on from Patriarchs and Prophets: "The days of Israel's greatest prosperity had been those in which they acknowledged Jehovah as their King,-when the laws and the government which He had established were regarded as superior to those of all other nations."--Idem, p. 605.

When I regard the government and the law of God as superior to that of all other nations, how can I have anything to do with the other nations? Then if I must fix up something like the other nations to govern myself, to keep myself straight, and those around me who are just like me, then do I regard the government and laws of God as superior to those that I am going to make? Then when His laws are counted by me as not superior to those I am going to make, where does that put me? [Voices]: Above God.

Just like the other pope; just like Nimrod,--putting myself in the place of God. No man can put himself in the place of God without putting himself above God.

Along with this, I have written what you will recognize as the truth: "But all this was forgotten now, in their settled purpose to have a king, a government, a state, like all the nations. Against the Lord's expressed will, Israel would be reckoned among the nations. ... Oh that Israel had known in that their day, the things that belonged to their peace! Oh that they had believed the Lord, and had allowed that He knew, better than they, the way that they should take for their good! But against His strongest plea and most solemn warning they shut their ears and hardened their hearts, and then and there entered upon the course that, with inexorable logic, led to their annihilation both as a nation and as the chosen people."--A. T. Jones, Empires of the Bible, p. 156.

It came about, too, that the tribes were divided--the ten and the two. What became of the ten? They had one continual course of apostasy, until they exclaimed: "We have no king."

Then the Lord came to them by the prophet Hosea, and said: "I will be your King." (Hosea 13:10) "Return unto me, Oh Israel." (Hosea 14:1) "You have fled from me." (Hosea 7:13) "I will be your King." (Hosea 13:10)

But they would not return; and they were carried into captivity, and lost forever. When that was done, it was written of Judah by Hosea: "Judah yet rules with God, and is faithful with the saints." (Hosea 11:12)

But you know that Judah went step by step, downward on the course of apostasy, until the word came: "Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." (Ezekiel 21:26-27)

The Lord had to get the heathen to rule His own people. And when the Lord, by the heathen, by the government of the heathen, had preserved them until He himself came to them, they still cried out the word that they uttered in the days of Saul, "Nay; but we will have a king."

And when Christ would not be their King, they crucified Him, and cried out, "We have no king but Caesar." (John 19:15)

"When against the protest of the Lord by Samuel, they cried, 'Nay; but we will have a king over us,' in that cry the Lord heard, and it is now easy for all to hear, their ultimate cry against Him--'We have no king but Caesar.' In rejecting God that they might be 'like all the nations,' they became like all the nations that rejected God."--Idem, p. 157.

The cry that they uttered against Christ at the judgment-seat of Pilate, was in that cry, "We will have a king," which was uttered in the days of Saul; and God heard it. That is the logic of it, and there is no escaping it. And if you and I would escape it, we must turn to God with all the heart, and all the soul, and all the mind, and all the strength. We must get out of our country, and from our kindred, and from our father's house. We must turn our backs upon Egypt, even though we be on the step to the throne of earthly dominion; we must step down from that, turn our backs upon it, and leave it all, and turn to God, in a living faith; and then we must dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations.

Thus you see that God has been teaching His people, and the nations always, that the eternal salvation of His people, and of any man, depends upon absolute separation of church and state in the heart.--General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 7, 1897--Sunday Evening, March 7, 1897

Chapter 6 - Results of the Apostasy of Israel

As we saw in the previous lesson, Israel apostatized, and called for a king that they might be like all the nations. In the present study, we shall see how entirely like the nations they did become. But Israel apostatized from God; because they did not believe God with all the heart. The word was not mixed with faith in them that heard it. They grew formal, and then the evils that they would have escaped if they had been faithful to God, came upon them, as upon any other heathen; and then, as the Spirit of prophecy tells us, all the evils that were the result of their own apostasy they charged back upon the government of God. They considered that His government was a failure; it was not good enough for them, it was not sufficient for them in this world, and they must have a government of their own-one which they could handle and by which they could govern and protect themselves.

Then they said to Samuel: "Make us a king ... like all the nations. ... That we may be like all the nations." (1 Samuel 8:5,20)

And although the Lord, by Samuel, solemnly protested against it, they protested against that protest, and said: "Nay; but we will have a king over us; ... like all the nations." (1 Samuel 8:19-20)

As they would have it so, the Lord let them have it so. Not only had they decided and settled it that they would have a king, but they had already decided who it was they should have for king. It was Saul, the son of Kish; and the Lord let them have him, too, because they must have their own way.

But all the evils which the Lord told them would come because of their choosing a king and a kingdom, did come upon them. They began to reap some of it in the days of Saul. They were helped considerably to be saved from their evils by the influence and reign of David. Although they rejected God, He did not forsake them, He still remained with them to lead all who would be led, and to save them, if possible, from the calamities that must certainly come, and which He knew would come, and from which they could not escape, as a nation. But He would save all who would escape it as individuals. They had started in a course that inevitably and irrevocably carried them on, one step after another, until, as we shall see, ruin came.

Solomon's Time

With Solomon began in plainest measure the troubles that were a necessary result of the course which they had taken against the protest of the Lord. And Egypt was always with it. Egypt always comes in. Solomon took a wife from Egypt, against the word of the Lord. He sent to Egypt for horses, against the word of the Lord. The glory that the Lord gave him he perverted to the service of Egypt and Egyptian idolatry, and the idolatry of all the nations around.

The burdens which were brought upon the people in supporting Solomon's three hundred wives and seven hundred concubines from all the heathen nations, in their idolatrous worship, were such as should not have been borne, that could not have been borne for good by the people; and for the good of both peoples, the Lord decided to separate the ten tribes from the two.

We cannot know what that good was that the Lord intended for the ten tribes, or for the two, because it never was realized. Jeroboam was signalized as the one who should rule the ten tribes first. But Jeroboam, forgetting the splendid example of David, to wait the Lord's good time, and have Him bring him to the throne of the ten tribes in His own way-even yet while Solomon lived, he lifted up his hand against the king, in that he took the step that proposed to take the throne of the ten tribes and rule them, to set himself up for king against Solomon. That was treason and rebellion. Solomon thought to punish him for it, and he fled to Egypt and stayed there until Solomon's death.

If he was not an Egyptian in heart before, he was after he got there. When Solomon had died, Jeroboam returned from Egypt. The time came for the ten tribes to be separated from the two, and Rehoboam took the course that separated them. When the people came and asked him to lighten the burdens that his father had laid upon them, it was a reasonable and proper request. The ancient men who had been advisers of Solomon, advised him to do that thing. But Rehoboam was not content to take the advice of these, because he did not want to be the servant of the people, as they advised him to be; he wanted to be the boss of the people, and he therefore consulted with the young men that had grown up with him. His mother was an Ammonitess, one of the basest of the idolatrous wives that Solomon had; and the young men who had grown up with him were the sons of other idolatrous women whom Solomon had for wives. These young men had grown up in all the abominations of heathenism that Solomon had practiced with his wives. Rehoboam partook of their sentiments and leaned to their way, and of course rejected the Lord's counsel, and the counsel of the men who had the fear of the Lord before them.

Rehoboam gave to the people the answer with which we are all familiar: (1 Kings 12:10) "You have asked me to make your burdens lighter, but instead of that, I will make them heavier; where they were as your little finger, I will make them to be like unto your loins." (Paraphrase of 1 Kings 12:10-14)

They said: "To your tents, Oh Israel: now see to your own house, David." (1 Kings 12:1)

Rehoboam, when he saw what had come, was really surprised at it; and yet that is not so strange in him, because when he was so blind as not to be able to see that the thing that he said to them was the most unwise thing to say, it is not strange at all that he should be surprised at what followed when he did say it. He sent his treasurer to them, to pacify them and to smooth the thing over and bring them back, if possible. But they stoned the treasurer to death at once, and Rehoboam, seeing what the result was, became scared and rushed to his chariot and hurried back to Jerusalem, raised up an army to come up and subdue them and compel them to serve him. But the prophet of the Lord told him that was not what was to be done, and that they should remain at home, and they did so.

The Northern Kingdom

Then Jeroboam took the kingdom, and set up the golden calves which he had brought from Egypt, so that the ten tribes were led at once into Egypt, into Egyptian idolatry and Egyptian system of government when they were separated from the two. Thus by Jeroboam the tide was started, and the example was set that was followed by all the rest of the kings of the ten tribes. And always after, it is: "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which sinned and made Israel to sin." (1 Kings 16:26; 22:52; 2 Kings 3:3; 10:29; 13:2,11; 14:24; 15:9,18,24,28; 17:21; 23:15)

And the apostasy was steadily, steadily downward, until the whole kingdom perished, and never was heard of again, and never will be. The apostasy in the line of kings of the ten tribes was from bad to worse and worse. Jeroboam was bad; the ones who immediately succeeded him were bad also. Then came Omri, and he was worse than the others; then came Ahab, and he was worse then all before him. Thus it went on through the kingdom, until the whole of it perished and was gone.

But the Lord was all the time trying His best to get them to serve Him. He sent them prophets after prophets; He called again and again unto the kings to fear him, to serve Him. When we come to the last days of Israel, you have Amos and Hosea especially prophesying. Amos, Hosea, and Micah prophesied for Israel, and to Israel, in the last days of Israel. Only a little of Micah, however, directly concerns the ten tribes. Almost all of Amos is concerning them, and the most of Hosea. Amos and Hosea are largely, almost all, prophesyings concerning Israel, and the Lord's last call for Israel to turn once more to Him, and be saved from utter destruction.

All those prophesyings, and the history of Israel, are put in the Bible for the warning of the people who live in the last days of this word's history. And the instruction of God is there for the people in the last days-to turn to God that they may be saved from actual ruin. That is why those things are put there. So that Amos and Hosea are just as much present truth today, to you and to me, and to everybody in the world, as they were to the people in the ten tribes in the day that they wrote.

Amos prophesied, and the priest that was at Bethel said to him: "O you seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:	But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." (Amos 7:12-13)

And he went and told the second Jeroboam that Amos was prophesying evil concerning the land, and was teaching rebellion against the king, and saying that the sword of the Lord would fall upon it all, and that the Lord could not bear all his words.

Let us turn now to the particular passage: "Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos says, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, Oh you seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there; But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel." (Amos 7:10-15)

And he did prophesy unto them; but do not forget, those were the last days of Israel. But when they would not let Amos prophesy in that land, and drove him off, and persecuted him as they had many of the prophets before, the Lord raised up Hosea in the land of Judah; and he, being in the land of Judah where this idolatrous priest told Amos to go, could prophesy concerning Israel, and they could not persecute him and do as they wanted to to him.

Now just a word, glancing again over this whole field: You know that from the time of Samuel onward, the kings of Israel persecuted the people of God, persecuted the prophets, slew the priests, as they chose. They did it because they had the power, as well as the spirit, to do it. But now if Israel had never had a king, a kingdom, or a government of their own, could they have done that? No; it would have been impossible. You know that the kings of Israel were worse than the heathen kings to the men of God and the prophets of the Lord: so that where kings of Israel and kings of Judah wholly maltreated the prophets of the Lord, heathen kings would respect them, and favor them.

Hosea, as I was saying, prophesied concerning this also. Now I will read a few verses in Hosea, that you may see what he says on this. Look at the 9th chapter first, just a word or two: "They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt." (Hosea 9:3)

Ephraim was one of the ten tribes; but the name is used here for the whole of them. The ten tribes went to Assyria; they were carried captive by the Assyrians. Yet when they were carried captive by the Assyrians, what does the Lord mean when he says they shall return to Egypt? Egypt signifies the farthest possible apostasy from God. The darkness that is altogether Egyptian darkness, is where men rule in the place of God, and the whole rule-the government, the men, and all-is set against God, and against His people, as it was against Israel when they were in the land of Egypt just before the plagues fell upon Egypt, and Israel was delivered. And when the Lord here says that Ephraim should go to Egypt, although Assyria-the government of Assyria-was to carry them captive, it shows that they were determined to go into absolute apostasy, and therefore they could not, simply because they would not, dwell "in the Lord's land."

You remember that we read what the Lord said to Abram: "Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, into the land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1)

Then that land is the Lord's land. And when He speaks by Hosea that Israel shall not dwell in the Lord's land, it does not refer to that little spot of land around Samaria; but refers to the land that was shown to Abraham and to which God had called His people when He brought them up out of Egypt. They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; then follows Egypt, absolute apostasy. You will see that further, as I shall read: "They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto Him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord. What will you do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord? For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles." (Hosea 9:3-6) "Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. For now they shall say, We have no king." (Hosea 10:1-3)

At this time they had no king. He had been murdered, and there was an interregnum. Another king had not yet come in his place. But mark what he says: "For now they shall say, We have no king." (Hosea 10:3)

The Lord said to them, when they chose that king against His protest, that they were rejecting Him. "Nay; but we will have a king." (1 Samuel 8:19)

Did they have a king? Yes; and the time came when they were compelled to say, "We have no king." But what did the Lord say just at this time? "For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us? They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springs up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it." (Hosea 10:3-5)

In the 13th chapter you have what the Lord says: "Oh Israel, you have destroyed yourself; but in me is your help. I will be your king." (Hosea 13:9)

But they would not have it so. So you see all the way through, the Lord wanted to be alone their king; wanted them to find Him their king, and not to have any other. Then as He says in the next verse: "I gave you a king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath." (Hosea 13:11)

So I read the whole of that verse: "I will be your king: where is any other that may save you in all your cities? and your judges of whom you said, Give me a king and princes?" (Hosea 13:10)

He points them right back to the time when they said: "Give us a king to reign over us." (1 Samuel 8:6)

He says now: "I protested that time that you should not have him, and told you this evil would come; now you confess, yourselves, that you have no king, but you have destroyed yourselves. I will be your king; let me be your king."

Now look at the 11th chapter: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." (Hosea 11:1)

Why does He speak that here in the last days of Israel, a thousand years after He had brought him out of Egypt? What is it for? "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return. And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels. And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt him." (Hosea 11:1-7)

The Lord is mourning over Israel now, just when he is on the brink of ruin. He is making the last call: the last prophecy comes now; and with this, and at this very time, Hezekiah is reigning in Judah. When he came to the throne he set about to reform the kingdom, and to recover it from the apostasy of Ahaz. When he had cleansed the temple, and put everything in order, they had a two weeks' Passover. But before that Passover, Hezekiah sent messengers throughout the whole of the ten tribes, what remained of them, to call them up to the Passover at Jerusalem, to worship the Lord God of Hosts; but the record is, they scoffed at the messengers, and they laughed them to scorn; yet "a multitude" (2 Chronicles 30:18) out of Issachar, and Zebulun, and Naphtali, and the different parts of the provinces came up to Jerusalem, and kept the Passover, and joined themselves to the Lord. And when these people went up to Jerusalem and took their places among the people in Judah, in that very season the Assyrian king came up and took possession of the whole land of the ten tribes. And thus those who obeyed that call by Hezekiah to go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, were saved from the captivity to Assyria.

Now, just before Hezekiah makes his plea, Hosea is writing this, and the Lord is mourning over what the people are determined to do. See what He says: "I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms." (Hosea 11:3)

The Lord was so anxious to have them go in the right way, that He took them by the arms, and led them along; but they drew back the arm, they would not be led even that way. But yet He cannot give them up. See: "How shall I give you up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver you, Israel? how shall I make you as Admah? how shall I set you as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you: and I will not enter into the city." (Hosea 11:8-9)

Thus He holds himself back from the judgments that must fall upon them. Because He is God, He will not let it fall yet; even when it must fall. But still they rebelled; still they went on in their own way. And the result is recorded: "Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the 
Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made." (2 Kings 17:5-8)

Then it follows them down to the thirteenth verse: "Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected His statutes, and His covenant that He made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them." (2 Kings 17:13-15)

The Southern Kingdom

Thus the ten tribes were lost. Hosea, when he prophesied of these, said: "Judah yet rules with God, and is faithful with the saints." (Hosea 11:12)

Judah could stand yet awhile. Hezekiah was king; Manasseh followed Hezekiah, and he plunged the kingdom into apostasy again; his son followed his steps; Josiah came after him, and reformed the kingdom once more; and when Josiah was killed, then the kingdom went straight to ruin. There was no one after Josiah that feared the Lord. Even in Hezekiah's day, they were constantly calling for Egypt, and holding onto Egypt, trying to get Egypt to save them, trying to get help from Egypt, when the difficulties that had been brought upon them were all because of their unbelief and departure from the Lord.

Now look at the latter days of Judah. Ahaz sent to TiglathPileser, king of Assyria, and asked him to come up and save him out of the hand of the king of Damascus and the king of Samaria. Tiglath-Pileser did so; he took possession of Damascus, thus relieving Ahaz. Ahaz paid him tribute, and went up to Damascus to meet him, and to pay him obeisance as a subject. While there he found an idolatrous altar, had one made like it, and set it up at the door of the temple of the Lord. Thus he led the nation into apostasy, as the others in Israel.

In Judah, Hezekiah succeeded Ahaz. When Hezekiah became king, he wanted to be delivered from the Assyrian rule and tribute. There was a party in Judah that were with Hezekiah, determined to be delivered from Assyria. This party supposed that the only way to do this was to get the help of Egypt. Isaiah was prophesying then, and he told them to depend upon the Lord for deliverance from both Egypt and Assyria. He told them that it was because of their sinning against the Lord, that they were oppressed. He told them that their attempt to get help from Egypt would not avail; because their trying to get help from Egypt, would bring them more oppression, because Egypt would only oppress them instead of helping them; that Egypt could not deliver.

Now look at the 8th chapter of Isaiah. What passage of Scripture is it that is used so much by us in the book of Isaiah, about the coming of the Lord, and the waiting for the coming of the Lord? Where do we find it? Do you remember that the 8th chapter of Isaiah is the one that speaks about those who seek unto familiar spirits, that peep and mutter,-referring to Spiritualism? That is where it says: "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him." (Isaiah 8:16-17)

Then is that an advent chapter? Yes. Is that a chapter that reaches to the coming of the Lord? Yes. Now see what is in that chapter. See what is in the beginning of this chapter, beginning with the fifth verse: "The Lord spoke also unto me again, saying, Forasmuch as this people refuse the waters of Shiloh that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son [this was Assyria and Damascus]; Now, therefore, behold, the Lord will bring up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, Oh Immanuel." (Isaiah 8:5-8)

That was literally true concerning them. The king of Assyria came up and flooded the whole land. But why is that written in a connection and in a place where the coming of the Lord is looked for, and concerning a people who are to look for the coming of the Lord? That is written in that place, and brought down to us, to show to all the people now in our day, that difficulties and hardships and perplexities are going to come upon all the land and upon all the nations, that will overflow and pass over and reach even to the neck and fill the breadth of the land, and that the people will not know how to escape it. That is why this passage is brought down to us who are looking for the Lord. Let us read on and see: "Associate yourselves, Oh you people, and you shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say you not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear their fear, nor be afraid." (Isaiah 8:9-12)

Are there such times as that now, just now, just when the coming of the Lord is looked for? Are they associating themselves because fear and perplexity is upon them? because troubles are coming upon the land? Do we see anything of that kind anywhere? Have any of you seen it? Oh yes, you have! Has anybody but Seventh-day Adventists seen it? Indeed, if there could be any difference, nearly everybody sees it more plainly than the Adventists. But it is seen; that is plain enough.

And they are associating themselves together, binding themselves in companies and bundles, and girding themselves. What are they girding themselves for? What is going to come? They are going to be broken in pieces. Then what are they girding themselves for? To be broken in pieces. Yet they do not think so; but that they are girding themselves against the evils that are coming. And the attempts they make to deliver themselves from the evils, only deepen the thing, and bring them that much nearer to destruction, and to the breaking in pieces. "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwells in mount Zion." (Isaiah 8:13-18)

It is clear that this reaches to the coming of the Lord. It is an exhortation to the people who are to meet the Lord. But why does it bring in the troubles in the time when Assyria was oppressing Judah? Because that simply shows most plainly what kind of troubles would be upon all the land and trouble all the people in the time of the coming of the Lord. And the attempts that Judah made to escape those evils and to deliver themselves from them, are exactly such attempts as will be made by made by those who profess to be the people of God, to deliver themselves from the evils that are coming.

God is calling all the time: "Put no dependence upon Assyria; put no dependence upon 
Egypt; but put your dependence upon the Lord alone." "Turn your back against Assyria: that is right. But do not go to Egypt to escape Assyria. Seek the Lord. Go not to Egypt; go to the Lord. And when you find the Lord with all your heart,  you will be delivered from all this trouble and oppression from Assyria."

Just a few words upon that. The 30th chapter of Isaiah tells us the secret of that. "Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion." (Isaiah 30:1-3)

His ambassador came down there to make their overtures to Egypt. And when Judah sent ambassadors to Egypt, Egypt was ashamed of the ambassadors. "For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. The burden of the beasts of the South: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still." (Isaiah 30:4-7)

Now that you may see that this is not foreign, I turn here and read from a testimony, dated July 5, 1896, as follows:

"The warnings given in the word of God to the children of Israel were meant, not merely for them, but for all who should live upon the earth. He says to them, 'Woe to the rebellious children, ... that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin: that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt.'

If the Lord reproved His people anciently because they neglected to seek counsel of Him when in difficulty, will He not be displeased today if His people, instead of depending on the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness to enlighten their way, turn from Him in their test and trial, for aid, to human beings who are as erring and inefficient as themselves?

Where is our strength? Is it in men who are as helpless and dependent as ourselves; who need guidance from God even as we do? Christ says, 'Without me you can do nothing;' and He has provided the Holy Spirit as a present help in every time of need."--Ellen White, Testimonies to Ministers, p 380-381

But you know that in the perplexities of last year, that were hoped to be settled by the political campaign, even Seventh-day Adventists were so carried away from their allegiance to God that they would take part in the campaign in trying to manipulate the affairs of politics and to control the elections and trying to shape up things. What for? Oh to help the land out of the difficulties that they were so sure were coming upon the land. Of course, difficulties are coming upon the land. But will Seventh-day Adventists form themselves into companies for any such work as that? Let them be delivered from Assyria; let them be delivered both from Assyria and Egypt unto God. This is the only salvation. This is the only deliverance, whether then, now, or evermore?--General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 14, 1897--Sunday Evening, March 14, 1897

Chapter 7 - Out of Babylon and Egypt

In our lesson last night we came to a point in the history of 
Judah where troubles from Assyria were filling the land like a flood. They desired to escape it, and the Lord was calling to them to seek Him with all their heart, that He might deliver them. They were endeavoring by combination and confederacy and alliance with Egypt, to deliver themselves.

Hezekiah Learns Dependence on God

Thus it continued till they came up to a point of time in the life of Hezekiah where all help from Egypt was entirely cut off, not because he wanted it so, but because it was so. The king of Assyria had passed around between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea and placed himself between the armies of Egypt and Jerusalem, so as to keep the forces of Judah and the forces of Egypt from combining. Then he could defeat either of them alone.

The first time Sennacherib came up against Jerusalem, he did the same thing, and Hezekiah was so much at fault that it is written in the Scriptures that he went out to the king of Assyria and said: "I have offended; return from me: that which you put on me will I bear." (2 Kings 18:14)

And the king of Assyria laid upon him thirty talents of gold and three hundred talents of silver, and Hezekiah had to rob the house of God to pay the tribute.

The cause of this trouble was that the people of Ekron had rebelled against the people of Assyria; but the king of Ekron was faithful to the king of Assyria, and would not join the people in their rebellion. Then the people took him a prisoner by force to Jerusalem, and delivered him to Hezekiah for safe-keeping. And Hezekiah accepted him. Hezekiah was so much in sympathy with their rebellion from the king of Assyria that he was willing to join thus much in it.

The king of Assyria came up and took possession of Ekron. He then started to Jerusalem to get the king of Ekron and seat him again upon his throne in Ekron. Hezekiah fortified the city, and built bulwarks and all the defenses that needed to be made; but that did not answer, that would not deliver them; because God could not deliver them that way. I will read Sennacherib's account of that campaign, and also the Bible's account. These two accounts are woven together in the Empires of the Bible, page 322, and for three following pages. I begin reading with paragraph 15. Sennacherib tells how the people of Ekron had rebelled, and their king they had taken and made a prisoner. He says: "The chief priests, noblemen, and people of Ekron, who Padiah, their king (holding the faith and worship of Assyria), had placed in chains of iron; and unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, had delivered him; and had acted toward the deity with hostility; these men now were terrified in their hearts."

And he took possession of the city, and he goes on to say: "Hezekiah, king of Judah, did not submit to my yoke." Then the Bible says: "[Therefore] Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them." (Isaiah 36:1)

Then Sennacherib says: "Forty-six of those cities, strong fortresses, and the cities of their territory which were without number, with warlike engines, I besieged, I captured, I plundered, and counted as spoil....Two hundred thousand one hundred and fifty people, small and great, male and female, horses, mares, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep beyond number, from the midst of them I carried off and distributed them as a spoil."

Then the Bible says: "And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city: and they did help him. So there was gathered much people together, and stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the king of Assyria come, and find much water? Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired to Millo in the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance." (2 Chronicles 32:2-5)

Now Sennacherib says: "He [Hezekiah] himself, like a bird in a cage, inside Jerusalem, his royal city. I shut him up: siege towers against him I constructed (for he had given command to renew the bulwarks of the great gate of his city)."

And now the Bible says: "And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city, and spoke comfortably to them, saying, Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah." (2 Chronicles 32:6-9)

This was all true enough, if only he had been innocent in this matter. But with Padiah, king of Ekron, in prison at that moment at Jerusalem, the Lord could not put His endorsement upon Hezekiah in the course he had taken by defending the city. Consequently says Sennacherib: "Hezekiah himself the fear of the reproach of my majesty overwhelmed; and the Urbi, and his own soldiers, and the other soldiers that he had caused to enter Jerusalem his royal city."

Then the Bible says: "And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria." (2 Kings 18:14-16)
  
And of this Sennacherib says: "To the former tribute, paid yearly, I added the tribute of alliance of my lordship, and laid that upon him. ... The workmen, soldiers, and builders, whom for the fortification of Jerusalem, his royal city, he had collected within it, now carried tribute. With thirty talents of gold, 800 talents of silver; woven cloth, scarlet, embroidered; precious stones of large size; couches of ivory, movable thrones of ivory, skins of buffaloes, dan wood, ku wood, a great treasure of every kind; and his daughters, eunuchs of his palace, male musicians, and female musicians; unto Nineveh my royal city, after me sent. And to pay tribute and do homage he sent his envoy. His cities which I plundered, from his kingdom I cut off, and to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, Padiah, king of Ekron, and Zilli-Bel, king of Gaza, I gave them. I diminished his kingdom."

That is the full story of that verse in the Scriptures where it says that Hezekiah sent out to the king of Assyria and said: "I have offended; return from me: that which you put on me will I bear." (2 Kings 18:14)

Some time after this, Hezekiah sent ambassadors to Egypt, and Egypt formed an alliance with Hezekiah and sent up an army. Sennacherib heard of this in time to plant his army between Egypt and Jerusalem. Then he sent first a call to Jerusalem to Hezekiah to surrender, and wait till he should come back from Egypt, and he would come and take them all away captive to a land like their own, that would be just as good as theirs. But Hezekiah told them not to answer at all, and the man returned to Lachish, and found that the king had gone to Libnah, and they reported to him there.

Then Sennacherib heard that the armies of Egypt were coming up, and he sent a letter again to Jerusalem, telling what he could do, and what the Lord could not do; and that Hezekiah need not depend upon the Lord, because the Lord could not deliver them out of his hands; and how that when he got done with the king of Egypt, he would come up, and Jerusalem would have to take the consequences.

By this time, Hezekiah had learned to trust the Lord; for he had nobody else to trust. He was forced at last to trust in the Lord. Therefore he went up to the temple, laid that letter of Sennacherib's before the Lord, and said to the Lord:

"There it is now; we cannot do anything. Lord, undertake you for us." (2 Kings 19:15-19)

And the Lord did so. That night the armies of Sennacherib were slain, and he went home to Nineveh. So that at last, by all these hard times, these evils that were upon them, and that shut them up so completely that they could not have any help from Egypt nor anywhere else, they were brought to where the Lord wanted them at the first-to where He could deliver them.

If they had only depended upon the Lord all the time as they did then, the Lord would have done all the time what He did for them then. They would never have been put in subjection to Assyria, nor had anything to do with Egypt. They never would have been robbed and carried away captive. They would have stood as the Lord's people and His kingdom always, dwelling alone, not being reckoned among the nations.
 
I need not follow the history of Judah in detail. It is the history of the ten tribes over again. It would be only to repeat the history we noticed last night, until we should come to the place where the Lord sent His prophet to Zedekiah, the last king, and said: "Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." (Ezekiel 21:26-27)

Shortly after that, the whole people were carried away captive to Babylon,-except the poorest of the land that did not have anything. They were left in the land, to possess it as they chose. Thus it was a benefit at that time to be poor and have nothing; and that was written for the understanding of all people that live upon the earth now. It is not a blessing to be rich and own large properties now. And the days are soon coming when those that are poor and have nothing will be the best off in this world.

This is the way it was when Jerusalem was destroyed in that day, and they were carried away captive to Babylon or slain. At that time those who had nothing could have homes everywhere in the land; for they had the whole land for themselves. All the others were carried away captive.

And this is the way it is going to be again. Those who are clinging to the possessions of this world, those who will be rich, will be carried away captive by their riches, and will perish with all the world. Then those who are poor in this world's goods, and have nothing, because they have put all in the cause of God,- they will dwell in the Lord's land, when all who dwell in the lands of earth are carried away captive, and the whole earth is destroyed.

This account of the apostasy of Israel and their destruction was not written for nothing. Hosea and the prophecies referred to last night were not written for nothing. The 8th chapter of Isaiah was not written for nothing. These words were written for us, and we must heed them in our day.

Now we come to the last days of Judah. Read the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They are present truth today for Seventhday Adventists, just as much as is the book of Revelation. Jeremiah and Ezekiel are written for us upon whom the ends of the world are come, because these books were written in the days when the end of Judah was come; and the destruction of Jerusalem, and the times that attended it, are simply recorded to point out to all the people of the world the times when the end of the world and its destruction are near, and to warn them concerning the events that will attend it, and the troubles that will accompany it.

Choosing Caesar Over God

Israel chose a king against the protest of the Lord. When they were separated, the ten tribes came to the point where they were compelled to say: "We have no king."

And the Lord said: "I will be your king."

Again they said: "No; we must have a king."

And they had another one, and that was the last. Then they had neither king nor kingdom anymore; but were carried captive and lost forever, because they would not have the Lord for their king.

Judah lingered yet a while, and then came what we read a moment ago: "Remove the diadem, and take off the crown."

Judah can no more have a king. She is compelled to say: "We have no king."

She is to go into captivity to Babylon. The people and tribes as such had no more kings until their true King came, whose right it is to reign and rule; and even then they were so determined, so filled with the same spirit that rejected God in the days of Saul, that they would not have the Lord to rule over them; they rejected Him, and chose a king of this world: "We have no king but Cζsar." (John 19:15)

It is all one story. When they rejected God, they did so against His protest, and chose a king whose name was Saul. The Lord saw in that their rejection of Jesus, their king, and the choosing of Caesar and Barabbas. Their rejection of Christ and choosing of Caesar was only the certain logic of their rejection of God and choosing Saul. When they rejected Him and chose Saul, the Lord knew they would reject Him and choose Caesar. And the last step was in the first.

That is why the Lord said: "[Samuel,] they are not rejecting you, but they are rejecting me that I should not rule over them." (1 Samuel 8:7)

A Lesson for the Final Days

And it means that to Seventh-day Adventists. God wants to be the Ruler of His people, He wants to be the King of His people. Shall He be that? shall His kingship be enough? Shall His government be enough for His people? That is the question now, as it was the question back there. It was not enough for them back there; because they would not yield to Him with all the heart. They went into formalism, and became so much like the world that they went into the idolatry of the world. They must have a king, like the other heathen.

And it is the same story today. If God is not a sufficient ruler for 
Seventh-day Adventists, it is because they are not believing on Him with all the heart. It is because they are so much like the heathen, that they must have a heathen government and heathen power to protect themselves from themselves, and to rule themselves. Oh let Seventh-day Adventists today, listen to the Lord's word today:

"I will be your King."

Judah, as I stated a moment ago, was carried captive to Babylon, and a few of the poorest were left in the land. There they should have stayed. But they went into Egypt voluntarily. Against the Lord's protest again, they went into Egypt. Thus all the Lord's people were scattered among the heathen, in Babylon and in Egypt. And so from that time on, the Scriptures all speak of His people being brought from Babylon and from Egypt; and so it is yet.

Today, the word is, "Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues." (Revelation 18:4)

That is Babylon. And in the 11th chapter of the book of Revelation, it speaks of that which is "spiritually called Egypt;" (Revelation 11:8) and they who get the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over the mark, and the number of his name, "sing the song of Moses" (Revelation 15:3) not something like it--but "the song of Moses the servant of God." (Revelation 15:3)

What was the song of Moses? The song of deliverance from Egypt. Then, when those who get the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, sing the song of Moses, it is because they are delivered from Egypt. Because, today, and to the end of the world: "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matthew 2:15)

There is today a Babylon and an Egypt. Today there are people of God in Babylon and in Egypt. And today the Lord calls, "Come out of her my people;" and, "Out of Egypt have I called my son."

Look at it again: Where was Nimrod? He was in Babylon, and governed the realm of Babylon. Where was Abraham? He was in the country ruled by the kingdom established by Nimrod. But God called him out of that country. That country was Babylon both spiritually and physically. And more than this: Nimrod was the son of Cush, and Cush was the son of Ham, and Egypt is the land of Ham. So that in Nimrod there was both Egypt and Babylon. And when God called Abraham, He called him out of both Egypt and Babylon. And: "If you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29)

And you are called out of both Egypt and Babylon.

Oh let us all take to studying the Bible, and reading it for what it says, for the spiritual meanings that are there. Then the whole Bible, from the first verse unto the last, will be a living, shining thing to every one of us.

Next we found Israel in Egypt, and the Lord called them out of Egypt again. Then they rejected the Lord, and the end of it was that they went into captivity to Babylon, and again went to Egypt. And when Jesus came, they rejected Him, and chose Caesar. Then came in the Christian church, and there was the apostasy of the church which made another Babylon, and God called His people out of that Babylon. At the time of the Reformation, He called them to come out of that Babylon. Then came Protestantism, the reformed Christianity, and that apostatizes, and now makes an image to the beast, which brings again Babylon, mother and daughters, joined to the governments of the world. And still 
God calls, "Come out of Babylon," "Come out of her, my people." (Revelation 18:4)

The philosophy that made the apostasy in the Christian church; the false, pagan teaching that had been brought into the Christian schools, and worked the apostasy, came from Egypt. That Egyptian philosophy perverted the Christian schools, made the apostasy, and built up the Church of Rome, which today is both Babylon and Egypt. And thus it is that today in living present truth, the Lord is calling His people out of both Babylon and Egypt.

Your Kingdom Come

But the Lord wants all. He wants to rule all. He wants His kingdom over all. He wants to have it so in the church; He wants to have it so in the school; He wants to have it so in the publishing institutions; He wants to have it so everywhere, where His name is named. Will you let Him have it so?

If so, you, each one for himself, must begin by letting the Lord have the whole place in your own heart. Let that King rule there in His own kingdom, in His kingdom of the Spirit. This Kingship and reign must be so full and absolute that you will recognize no king, no ruler, but God, and no law, but that of God.

Then, and not until then, shall we be delivered from Egypt and 
Babylon. And then, having been thus delivered from Egypt and Babylon, it can be truly said, and it will then be said by the Lord to all the universe: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 14:12)

Not those who tried their best,-but it will be God's certificate before the universe, pointing to a people on the earth that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. That time is at hand, and God is calling a people out of Babylon and out of Egypt that it may be done, and that He may certify: "Here is a people that will let me rule them, and that need no other ruler, no other law, and no other government than that of God."

Now just glance over that again. God started man with the first of all the commandments present with him and living in him: "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." (Mark 12:30)

Man took another course, listened to another one speaking, and so lost everything. God set him upon his feet again, and gave again to him the privilege of loving God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. In a short time his descendants had gone so far away from God that the Lord could have no place in their lives at all, and the people had to be swept from the earth by a flood. There were only eight souls that were willing to have the Lord in their lives.

The Lord started His work in the earth again with eight people. To them the first of all the commandments was: "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." (Mark 12:30)

But they went away from that, had other gods, and from idolatry they went into monarchy. A state was organized-the first state in the world. It was the fruit of apostasy.

Out of that wicked state God called His people again, and started a new race of beings. God called Abraham from that country, from his kindred, and from his father's house, to a land that He would show him. And He did not give him so much as to set his foot on in the earth; but He promised that He would give it to him and his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. Thus God called him out of that country where he was dwelling, and did not give him a country in the world. Therefore Abraham, the friend of God, the church of God, was left without any country in this world, and: "If you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29)

We are to walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcised. Are you without a country in this world? The Lord calls you out of your country, to the land that He shows you. It is the heavenly country. Will you take it?

Abraham's descendants went into Egypt, and God separated them from that country. Moses was the grand example in that age. He was heir to the throne. But he turned his back upon it, and went with God; and he had to turn his back upon it to go with God.

God delivered His own people, and said unto them: "The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." (Numbers 23:9)

But they apostatized from God, and set them up a king and a state like the heathen about them; and what became of it? Did it bring them any good? The Lord did not forsake them; but did that thing bring them any good? It was one continuous course downward, downward, downward, until they had been divided, and then both went to nothing; and from that day to this they have been "wanderers among the nations." (Hosea 9:17)

They have not been reckoned among the nations, even though they tried.

Thus when Christ came, He raised up again a spiritual family. But again there came in apostasy, and the church went off into idolatry and heathenism, and set up a government-church and state again. It was the papacy; and what is to become of it? You know that it is to "go into perdition." (Revelation 17:8)

Then God raised up again a spiritual family in Christian Protestantism. But that has apostatized, and joined the mother of harlots, and sets up the image to the beast,--a state on the earth professing to be the kingdom of God; and what is going to become of all that? You know that it is to be destroyed with an everlasting destruction.

• What became of the kingdom of Nimrod? It was destroyed.

• What became of the kingdom of Egypt? It was destroyed.

• What became of the kingdom of Assyria? It was destroyed.

• What became of the kingdom of the ten tribes? It was destroyed.

• What became of the kingdom of Judah? It was destroyed.

• What became of the kingdom of Babylon? It was destroyed.

• What became of the kingdom of Medo-Persia? It was destroyed.

• What became of the kingdom of Grecia? It was destroyed.

• What became of the kingdom of Rome? It was destroyed.

• What is to become of the ten that succeeded? They will be destroyed.

• What is to become of the papacy that set itself up on the ruins of Rome? It is to be destroyed.

• What is to become of the kingdom that is made in the image of it, in the United States? It is to be destroyed.

The Lord would show us that He would not have His people connected with these things. Is not that the lesson in it? Does He want His people to fasten their affections upon that which perishes? From Adam until now, God has been calling upon men to allow Him to reign, that He may be their king; that the people should get out of their country, from their kindred, from their father's house, and dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations. Shall He ever find a people who will let Him have His own way? [Voices]: Yes.

Yes; we know He is going to have such a people, for the word of God says so. But shall He have that people among those that now profess to be His people? That is the question. Shall you be one of these? will you be one of these? You say, "Yes." Then:

• Will you get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house?

• Will you dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations?

• Will you have God for your king, and have no other king? 

• Will you have God's government for your government, and need no other government?

Not that you will be rebelling against any other government; you simply have no use for any other because you have the best government--the government that is perfect. If that government is in your life, you will not need any government on the earth to govern you, and they will have no trouble or difficulty with you. That is all that the Lord is asking. Will you let Him have it in your life?

It is right in the third angel's message, that by it, and through it, God proposes to "establish Christianity upon an eternal basis."--Ellen White, The Review and Herald, December 13, 1892, "Let the Trumpet Give a Certain Sound". Then, as surely as in the third angel's message, God establishes Christianity upon an eternal basis, it will be a Christianity that will not be connected with anything upon this earth. It will be connected only with God; only with His eternal word; enlightened by His eternal Spirit; taught by Him whose goings forth have been from the days of eternity; and thus be led to the eternal God, that He may rule, and underneath shall be the everlasting arms. (Deuteronomy 33:27)

No Place for Political Actions

I know, and you know, that there are some of the brethren that do not think that this is straight. Two years ago it was preached, and was published in the Bulletin.--PP Editor’s note: Jones is referring to Lessons 1 to 9, which he presented at the 1895 General Conference and were printed in the General Conference Bulletin of 1895. The studies from this Bulletin will soon be available on our website under the title, The Second Advent Gospel, Book 2. By many it was not accepted. By some it is not accepted yet. It is thought to be altogether wrong. But in the late General Conference, two testimonies were read to us,--written especially for this Conference, and one of them, I find, is printed in Bulletin No. 4; the next one is not printed yet, but will be, I suppose, shortly,-reproving Seventh-day Adventists for engaging in political matters. I read a passage here that will show you the idea of it:

The Lord Jesus is disappointed in His people. He is the Captain, they are to file under His banner. They have no time, wisdom, or strength to spend in taking sides with political parties. Men are being stirred with an intense activity from beneath, and the sons and daughters of God are not to give their influence to this political strife. But what kind of spirit takes hold upon our people, when those who believe we are now under the third angel's message, the last message of mercy to the world, brothers in the same faith, appear wearing the badges of opposing political parties, proclaiming opposite sentiments and declaring their divided opinions.--Ellen White, General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 17, 1897, "Political Controversy."

Now I ask this question in the form of a proposition: If that which was preached two years ago on this subject of government and the church, had been accepted and followed by all Seventhday Adventists, could there possibly have arisen any place for that testimony? Plainly, no. Then did those lessons call for the wrong thing, when they called God's people to a position where it would be impossible for Him to find fault with them? I mean in this particular point. I mean that when a line of truth is presented from the word of God, which, if His people would accept it before God and the world, would set them in such an attitude that it would be impossible for the Lord to find fault with them in things related to that line of truth, is it not safe to accept that as the truth? How could it possibly be wrong?

But this is only one of the testimonies. The other testimony has page after page of reproof of that same kind, to His people, for engaging in the political discussions of the late campaign; so that in two successive testimonies the Lord has been compelled to send reproof to His people for doing the very thing that they would have been saved from, if they had accepted the message given them eighteen months before the campaign began. Why, then, did the Lord send that message to His people eighteen months before there was any occasion for them to take the contrary course? Didn't He want His people to be prepared when that time of confusion and discussion came upon them, so they would know the right way, and not be confused with the rest who were confused, and so they would not take part in the things that He is obliged to reprove?

I do not ask now that anybody shall accept that because it is there. I ask that they shall accept it, study into it, pray over it, look at it, and accept it because it is the truth, and will deliver the people of God from the possibility of His ever being called upon to reprove or correct them upon any such point as that. Yet I know that there are brethren who still think that it is all wrong; and say that it called for our people to take an extreme position, and that it was an extreme position. Can that be an extreme position which puts God's people where He wants them to stand, so they will be utterly free from all these confused things that confuse the world?

This year the same line of thought has come in another way. Scriptures that were referred to two years ago have not come into the lessons of this year at all. It was the gospel then; it is the gospel now; for it is simply the gospel pervading the whole Bible, and you cannot touch the Bible anywhere but that it says that.

There is another thing that we need to consider. If we take part in political affairs and political discussions, different sides will be taken by different individuals, in opposing political parties, proclaiming opposite sentiments, and declaring their divided opinions, while professing to be brethren. What is the last step in political working? War, of course. Then what is in it, at the beginning? Simply what is in it at the end--war. It is that spirit, from beginning to end. Can brethren in Christ, who are one in Christ, engage in anything that will cause them to be divided, in the spirit of antagonism? Can they? No; not and remain one in Christ. They are to seek unity, to seek for the unity of the Spirit, "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:3)

Some have been willing to follow the logic of it, and allow that at the last it is allowable for Christians even, any Christian, Seventh-day Adventists, or others, to fight. Not to fight one another, of course, but to fight for their country, and engage in war to maintain civil government. But where is the Christian's country? Where is the Christian's government? Can you tell? [Voices]: Not of this world.

It is not of this country, and not of this world. Our kingdom and country are not of this world.

But can Christians fight for their country with weapons of carnal warfare? The King of that country allowed himself to be crucified, put to death, and buried out of sight, rather than to lift a hand to fight for His country. Then can anything, the logic of which goes to that extent, be true at the beginning?

But this is not all. If we as Seventh-day Adventists are to preach those principles, and are to hold to them, there is an important step that must be taken, in justice to the United States government, in justice to the State of Michigan, and several other States, that we may appear in the right light.

I say it again, so that you may understand what I am talking about. If it is to be so that we shall accept the principle that Christians may fight, may lift their right arm to defend country and government and all that, then the denomination, in justice to itself, and especially in justice to the government of the United States and to several of the States, must publicly proclaim it, and repudiate and reverse the course that was once taken by the denomination as such.

I have here two little documents printed in 1865, but what is written in them occurred in 1864. One of them is entitled Views of Seventh-day Adventists Relative to Bearing Arms, as Brought before the Governors of Several States and the Provo-Marshall General [that is, of the United States], with a Portion of the Enrollment Law.

At that time Seventh-day Adventists, by the General Conference Committee, represented to the government of the United States, to the government of the State of Illinois, of Michigan, of Pennsylvania, of Wisconsin, and another State or two, that Seventh-day Adventists, as Christians, and because they were Christians, could not allow that Christians could under any circumstances bear arms or fight. The other document is extracts from the writings and publications of Seventh-day Adventists, to justify the government in accepting from the denomination, that plea as genuine.

Now if that order is to be reversed, and we are to accept the view that Christians may fight under any circumstances at all, for government or whatever it may be, then we owe it to the government of the United States to have the General Conference Committee, representing the denomination, go to the government of the United States and tell them that we have changed our views; and go to the governors of these States and tell them that we have changed our views; so that the records will stand according to our new and revised views upon that subject.

Now I do not believe for a moment that we should hold to something that was done, simply because it was done. But if the thing that was done, was right, then hold to it. And I say now, that if our views are to change upon that, we owe it to these governments to inform them of the fact, so that they will not think of us as other than just what we are. That is only fair to the governments; because as a denomination we did officially put ourselves on record as holding the opposite position.

Two years ago, when those lessons were given, I did not know that these documents were in existence. I did not know that they were in existence until about the first of the year 1897. Some one sent these to me in an envelope, and that is all I know about it. They were printed in 1865 by the Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, Battle Creek, Mich. The names of the General Conference Committee are there signed to the documents presented to the United States government, and the name of the State Conference Committees are there signed to the documents presented to the governors of the States.

Now I will read to you some of the extracts that were then printed from documents, publications, and papers of Seventh-day Adventists, as evidence to the United States government, and as evidence to the governors of the States, that that position taken by the General Conference Committee of the denomination, was their understood position, and not one made up for the occasion, to escape the draft, or to escape the results that were coming upon the country because of the war. This matter was issued as evidence to these governments that it was a principle with the Seventh-day Adventists, and they were holding to it because it was Christianity.

I will read a few extracts from this, and you will see what I saw as soon as I read it,-that if I had possessed that document before me two years ago in this Tabernacle, I could not have taught the principles that are in it, any more plainly than I did in the lessons that I gave, and that were published in the Bulletin. Here is an extract from something written in the Signs of the Times, by Elder James White, in 1852:

The professed church of Christ has left the arm of her true husband, and now leans on the strong arm of the law. She seeks protection, and to be nourished by the corrupt governments of the world, and is properly represented by the harlot daughters of the old mother, she being a symbol of the Catholic Church. As the woman should cleave to her husband, so should the church cleave to Christ, and instead of seeking protection from the arm of the law, lean only on the potent arm of her Beloved. The church is unlawfully wedded to the world. This may be seen in the various departments of civil government. Even in the war department the professed minister of Jesus Christ is seen mocking the God of peace with his prayers for success in battle.

Again, an extract quoted from the Review and Herald of May 9, 1854: Whether these things are at hand or not [it is about the coming of the Lord], the fact remains; a war spirit is abroad, a spirit of hatred and delusion. It is its contaminating influence that we fear,--it is the demoralizing influence of familiarity with the ideas of war and bloodshed, it is the unhealthy excitement, the bitter party spirit, that is evil, and causes evil to spread.

Let it not be said there is no danger to Christ's disciples from these causes. There is danger; because "when iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Such are the mysterious and inexplicable sympathies which bind man to man, which forbid a separate and isolated interest, that we catch unconsciously the prevalent tone, and we know not till the mind is warped and unsettled; and thus, being in an unhealthy state, it is ready to receive and to conceive evil. The moral scourge is more destructive even than the pestilence.

Another extract reprinted from Review and Herald of July 31, 1856: Jesus has said, "Follow you me." What, dear brother, dear sister, is your standard of faith? Is it not the Bible? You say, Yes. Then there we will come, that we may learn whether we are following Jesus or not. I will step in before you in your pathway, and reason with you; and this pathway is our every act of life. We will take a wide survey, first, and ask, Do you act like the world? But you inquire, What do you mean? I will try to tell you. Do you take a part with the world in its maxims and laws? If so, your pathway is not the one that Jesus trod. Jesus said, "They [disciples] are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." John 17:14. When did you see Jesus in Caesar's hall of judgment? Never, only when led as a lamb to the slaughter. "But we want good laws, and it is our duty to get good men to make and execute them."

Truly we want good laws; and Jesus has not left us to follow Him without them. He says, "The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." (John 14:24) The psalmist says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." (Psalm 19:7) Paul says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

What more do you want? or what less do you want, dear brother?

The next step you require of your agent, is to enact laws, which, if disregarded, are enforced by the sword, an unchristian weapon. Said laws are the essential, vital, being of said government of which he is a component part, which can sustain its nationality only by arsenals or implements of death, large navies and military, equipped with their deadly weapons.

You next place your good brother Christian, follower of the Prince of Peace, aside the scaffold, to inflict death; or at the head of a body of military, with a habeas corpus writ to thrust back into bondage a poor brother, for the crime of desiring to inhale heaven's free air. Or, if he is your chief magistrate of the nation, you mount your good bishop on a war-horse armed cap-a-pie, general-in-chief over all the sinews of death in the nation.

I would ask, dear followers of Jesus, if man can make it right to kill, when God has said, "You shall not kill"? Does not the whole fabric of human government rest on the sword? Are they not to be dashed to shivers when He comes whose right it is to rule in righteousness?

But I am not at war with human governments. No, no. David says in a hymn of praise to God, "Surely the wrath of men shall praise You: the remainder of wrath shall You restrain." (Psalm 76:10) "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will you then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and you shall have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to you [Christian] for good." (Romans 13:3-4)

If, my brethren, you keep in mind that Christians are a different company, a little flock, separated, chosen out of the world, to be lights in, or to, the world, that the world by beholding their good works (light), may be led to join in company with the little flock, counted all the day long to the slaughter, and thus glorify your Heavenly Father, then you will be able to comprehend such scriptures as Romans 13 and 1 Timothy 1:2, which I may notice hereafter. "Let the potsherd strive with the potsherd of the earth" (Isaiah 45:9); but, let Christians possess the mind of Jesus, then they will follow Jesus.

Have we seen some of the results of professed Christians following the world? May it prepare us then to gain an eminence as did Balaam, when Balak called him to curse Israel, when he uttered his parable and said, "How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord has not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." (Numbers 23:8-9)

I now read another extract, reprinted from the Review, dated August 14, 1856: Has the gospel of Jesus granted you the right to use the sword, to arm you with carnal weapons, to take the sword to "provide for your own household," to deliver the oppressed out of the power of the oppressor, by breaking the sixth commandment of God, "You shall not kill"? Jesus says, "Love your enemies."

Do you think that you, as a Christian living under the gospel, have a Bible permission to mingle in political strife in any way whatever? either in legislating, or executing the laws of human government? If so, I think you are greatly mistaken.

That is what the denomination said in 1864. They presented that to the government of the United States, as evidence that they did not believe in war, and that they could not engage in bearing arms, and that if they were drafted, they could not be expected to fight. And the government of the United States listened to their representations, and made provision that they should attend the hospitals where they could do the work of ministers of the gospel, and care for the sick, and bring salvation to the dying. Now if that is to be reversed, we should stand fairly before the government, and state that it has been reversed.

I continue reading: Every text you may quote, or plausible reason you may make, must be tested by plain, literal Scripture. It may be that we may notice all such scriptures or reasons that you urge, at a proper time; but firstly, we will listen to the gospel. To Christians who are willing to follow Jesus, this ought to be enough.

Jesus says, "If any man serve me, let him follow me." (John 12:26) But do you say, "This I can do, and serve as a faithful citizen of my country, in her national policies and government"? Stop. Jesus says: "No man can serve two masters." (Matthew 6:24) "If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 15:19)

What share can you take in the policies of the world, if "you are not of the world," but are hated of the world, and are chosen "out of the world"? "But must we give the rule into the hands of the wicked?" say you. You cannot help yourself. Wicked men and seducers shall wax worse and worse; and at the time of the end of the world, the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand. (Daniel 12:10) The reason is because the world is not willing to obey God, or follow Jesus, not acknowledging that there is one Lawgiver. (James 4:12)

"Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me; but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid." (Isaiah 29:13-14)

How wonderfully this is exemplified in the course of the many high professors of divinity, who have, but a short time in the past, stood at the head of religious revivals, moral reforms, and peace societies: leading on the church of Christ, armed with the gospel that brings to light life and immortality; wielded by entreaties, prayers, and tears; now in the very face of the gospel, when Jesus has said, "You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Be you therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." (Matthew 5:43-44; Luke 6:36)

Notwithstanding these scriptures, we see the deplorable state of the Christian churches as they develop their moral fall and conformity to the world. Some few of the many instances, we quote.

Here follow several statements of prominent preachers, breathing of "arms," "fighting," "battle." "war," etc. It then continues as follows:

In view of facts like these, demonstrating the change of the most fine gold to worse than dross, the utter disregard of the testimonies of Christ and their former profession, we must exclaim. "They have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam." (Jude 1:11)

Are these men following Jesus? Are they harnessing themselves and followers with gospel weapons? Are they exhibiting implicit confidence in the perfect law of God? Do they acknowledge that there is but one Lawgiver for the Christian? Do they hear Paul say, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds"? (2 Corinthians 10:4) Are they finally heeding the Scriptures that they professedly teach?

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Why? "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood." No; that is not the calling of the followers of Jesus. But we wrestle "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness [wicked spirits, margin] in high places." "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." (Ephesians 6:11-13)

Paul enumerates the Christian weapons in Ephesians 6:14-18, and says, Take "the sword of the Spirit [not of steel], which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplications in the Spirit;" having on this heavenly armor, and their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, striving to enjoy Christ's benediction,--"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. ... Blessed are the peacemakers [not peace-breakers]: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:7-9) Listen to John as he addresses the soldiers, when they ask what they should do. He replies, "do violence to no man." (John 3:14)

Remember that Jesus said to Peter, when the great practical doctrine was taught for all Christians, what to do with the sword, "Put up again your sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." (Matthew 26:52)

Let Christians walk in the light of these truths, and there would be but few Christian generals or soldiers, to use the "Rev. Mr. Beecher's twenty-five Sharp's rifles," although a Bible sanctimoniously be attached to the breech of each.

They hear Jesus say, "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight." (John 18:36) Christians thus armed with these gospel weapons, and completely disarmed of carnal ones, being entirely separate from the governments of the world, they may let the world, armed down with weapons of death as they are, rush down the broad road, enforcing their unchristian laws with the penalty of death.

It is the unspeakable privilege of the remnant of the church, as they look over the history of the past, and see, although the disciples of Christ have, like Paul, cried out, "For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter" (Romans 8:36); while their pathway has been bedewed with tears, saturated with their blood, and covered with their torn carcasses and bleached bones;-it is their privilege to exclaim with Balaam, as they see that God's "people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations," "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" (Numbers 23:9-10)

There is considerable more in this leaflet, but I do not need to read any more of it. I will read a passage or two more from the Lord, that is here for us in our day. This was given to us four years ago from the Spirit of prophecy, and was read to us in this Tabernacle: "The Lord has chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure. For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods." Psalm 135:4-5. Consider, my brethren and sisters, that the Lord has a people, a chosen people, His church, to be His own, His own fortress, which He holds in a sinstricken, revolted world; and He intended that no authority should be known in it, no laws be acknowledged by it, but His own.--Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers, p. 15-16. Also, General Conference--Daily Bulletin, February 27, 1893. 

Another came to us in General Conference this present year. This carries us right back to where the apostasy began, and brings us face to face with God, and with His truth, and with this whole subject as it is from the Lord; as He desires to be with His people today.

The line of demarcation between the professed commandmentkeeping people of God and the world, is not as distinct as it once was. Those who are walking in harmony with God will not be found taking part in political gatherings. Those who do this give evidence that they are not faithful servants of Jesus. They have handled common fire so long that their discernment is lost. There is a people who have enlisted to stand under the banner of Jesus. They are Christ's army. They have pledged themselves to come out from the world, and be separate. They have pledged themselves to use the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, to make aggressive warfare against sin and all iniquity. We are to show our loyalty.

There is a governmental term; there is a term that applies to citizenship. We are to show our loyalty to what? That is the question.

We are to show our loyalty to our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle James declares: "Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4) And the beloved John, the disciple in spirit most like Jesus, has given the warning, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15) No man will find happiness in following the example of Adam, and wandering away from his Maker.

Keeping the Commandments

So these lessons close just where we began-with Adam and his Maker, and the first of all the commandments in the universe: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)

Then you will not wander from your Maker. Then there will be no apostasy. Then there will be no idolatry. Then there will be no government set up after the example of the heathen who have gone away from God; but God will be all in all, and will lead His people to that glorious land which He showed to our father Abraham when He separated him from all governments in the world, and kept him separate while he lived in the world.

He who calls us to follow and walk in the steps of that faith which our father Abraham had, being yet uncircumcised, will take us then to that land which is the glory of all lands; and there shall we abide in the presence of the Lord, and under the glorious wings of the Almighty, forevermore--loving God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, and with all the strength; and He can point to us now, then, and forevermore in the presence of the universe, and say: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

And let all the people say: "Amen and Amen."--General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 15, 1897--Monday Evening, March 15, 1897