It has already been pointed out that the Gospel as given through the prophet Isaiah was for the people who lived in the time of the promise, a time when the work of the Gospel could be closed up and the King of glory come, if the people would only receive the message.
So it is emphatically a message for the present time when: "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hastes greatly." (Zephaniah 1:14)
It is also clear that in this 1st chapter of Isaiah a complete view of the Gospel work is presented, reaching to the full restoration through judgment and righteousness, in the experience of those who accept it, or the destruction of those who reject it, and thus "forsake the Lord." (Isaiah 1:28)
So the work to be done just before the Lord comes will be set forth in this chapter, and the people who are doing the closing work will be carrying out the principles which are here laid down. Let us therefore study some of these principles.
A Question of Food
"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken,I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." (Isaiah 1:2)
The Lord calls upon heaven and earth to listen while He presents His case concerning His children. He says that He has nourished them, but they have turned against Him. "The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel does not know, my people do not consider." (Isaiah 1:3)
Even the beasts of burden recognize their owner and expect to serve those who feed them, but His children do not so.
It is no mere accident that the food question is mentioned here. It was through yielding to the temptation of Satan over this very question that sin came into the world in the first place. It was over this same matter that the children of Israel murmured in the wilderness. "And they tempted God in their hearts by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" (Psalm 78:18-19)
Satan attempted to overthrow Jesus in the wilderness on this same question. "And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:3-4)
We may therefore be sure that in the closing work of the Gospel God's people will be tested to show that the victory which was gained over this question by Jesus has been fully appropriated through faith by His followers.
Study anew the question of healthful living, of eating what the Lord has given for food with a constant recognition of what He gives in such food, and see that it is not a matter of chance that it is now coming into such prominence. Observe that the closing message must deal with this matter.
Compare the following: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." (Revelation 14:6-7) "Sirs, why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He left not himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." (Acts 14:15-17) "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He gives to all life, and breath, and all things." (Acts 17:24-25)
Note what is involved in the recognition of God as the Creator.
Read: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1 Corinthians 10:1-11)
These things "are written for our admonition," because the same test will be experienced by those "upon whom the ends of the world are come."
The Snare of Ritualism
"Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? says the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood." (Isaiah 1:10-15)
From verses 10-15 we learn that in the very time of the promise the professed people of God were depending upon the forms of worship to commend them to God while their lives were full of evil. This is but one phase of the same old effort to put self in the place of God.
The Lord's rebuke upon such mockery is intended to save the people from depending upon that which will fail them when the test comes. "Thus says the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadsout her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." (Jeremiah 17:5-8)
There is nothing arbitrary in these statements. The simple consequences of man's own choice are presented. Every offering, every form of service, in which the righteousness of Christ is lacking, is a vain oblation, and empty form. It is no more acceptable than was the offering of Cain.
But these principles must be emphasized in the closing work. The falling away and the mystery of iniquity reach their climax in the final struggle of the great controversy when the professed church and the world have united against God and His truth. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." (Isaiah 21:9) "Babylon is fallen, is fallen. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb." (Revelation 14:8-10)
The warning against the worship of the beast and his image is just as much a part of the closing message as is the instruction to worship God. It is again the time of the promise, and so now we see a professed religion of forms and ceremonies substituted for the reality of the life that cleanses from sin.
But this is not a question simply of some church. It is a matter of individual experience, and the only safeguard against it is in an individual acceptance of the life of God in Christ: "Receive the Holy Ghost." (John 20:22)
Christian Help Work
The spirit of the Gospel is to help the poor and the unfortunate. This is shown in the whole work of Christ for us. Those who are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," (Revelation 3:17) are the very ones whom He came to help. He came to a fatherless family to be "the Everlasting Father" (Isaiah 9:6) to them, the second Adam. "[He] gave himself for us." (Titus 2:14)
The spirit of Satan and of the world is selfish, to think only of oneself. In the closing days this spirit will be most fully revealed by those who have refused the blessings of the Gospel, and this will open the way and create a demand as it were for helping those who are thus brought into distress.
So in the closing work of the Gospel, just before the people of God are to hear the invitation, "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom," (Matthew 25:34) they will call "the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind," (Luke 14:13) to share with them in things temporal and things spiritual. And so the instruction to "relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow," (Isaiah 1:17) will be carried out by those who are giving the last message of mercy, and by this work it will be shown that it is a message of mercy. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27)
Note that the definition of religion given here shows that it is not an abstract quality, but a principle which manifests itself in life, and determines our relationship to the unfortunate. That the poor, who are really the children of God, can do Christian Help Work is shown from the fact that Jesus helped others, although He had not where to lay His head.
And giving from their scanty funds was so common that this came to the mind of the disciples as the probable reason why Judas left them on the night of the betrayal. "And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus untohim, That you do, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent He spoke this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor." (John 13:27-29)
Peter had no money, but he bestowed an inestimable gift upon the lame man: "Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." (Acts 3:6)
God makes believers sufficient to be ministers of His own life. "And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life." (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)--Present Truth, January 19, 1899--Isaiah 1:2-28.