The Third Angel’s Message (1897)
February 9, 1897
The Spirit of Prophecy. - No. 1.
A. T. Jones
(Tuesday Forenoon, Feb. 9, 1897.)
I SUPPOSE there is no one in this room who does not think but that
he truly believes in the Spirit of Prophecy; that is, that the Spirit of
Prophecy belongs to the church,-to this message as is manifested through Sister
White, and that these things are believed, professedly believed at least, so
far as the idea and the Scriptures that prove that such things are a part of
this work. But that is not where the trouble lies, for we are in trouble now.
If we do not know it, we are much worse off than if we were in trouble and did
know it. And more than that, the cause of God, as well as you and I, are in
such trouble that we are in danger day by day of incurring the wrath of God
because we are where we are. The Lord tells us that more than once, and he tells
us how we got there, and he tells us how to get out of it. And the only thing I
know how to tell you here, is to study the Spirit of Prophecy, and get out of
it what you need.
That is only one of the statements that is made. In knowing these
statements, and having known them for some time, I would have been glad to stay
at home and go on with the work there, because there is so much to be done and
so many involved. God calls for many changes among the men who have formed
committees, boards, councils, etc., and these men who compose these committees,
boards, and councils are the very ones assembled here upon whom it will fall to
make the changes. Now, how shall these men make the changes in which they
themselves are involved, unless they themselves are changed first? The only way
to have the change wrought is to have the men changed. All who will do so God
will work through, and all who will not do so-what will become of them? That is
why I say we are in trouble to-day. When the Lord tells us what trouble we are
in, he tells us how we got there and how to get out of it. It all comes through
disregarding the Testimonies. Then when we get into trouble by disregarding the
Testimonies, and the Testimonies tell us just how to get out of that trouble,
and we follow the testimony that leads us out, then we shall be straight on the
Testimonies.
I have nothing to get off onto you, for I am in it with the rest
of you. The Lord says that the cause is in trouble, and I am part of the cause;
I belong with it, my life is wrapped up in it, and so is yours; it is
everything to us. Then when the cause is in trouble, you and I are in trouble.
It may be that you personally had no definite connection with the steps that
brought the cause into trouble; yet we, being a part of the cause, and the
cause itself being our life, are in trouble all the same because the cause is.
But God tells us what to do to get out of it.
I do not
want to give you man's counsel, but the Lord's. It may be that we shall see
men's names, and if so I shall not dodge it. If a name should be left out and
not read, and we know who it is, it does not follow that an attack is made upon
that brother. Suppose that I commit a wrong, and the Lord tells me of it in a
testimony. When that testimony comes to me, I turn my back upon the wrong, and
you may use it all you want to, and it will not be against me; for I am not in
it if I have turned from it by acknowledging it, and acting accordingly.
As a real
matter of fact, it is a question whether anybody finds right down in his own
heart a belief of the Testimonies until he gets one or two or three, and he has
accepted all, and then he will be pretty well satisfied that he believes the
Testimonies, and not till he has had some such experience. I will begin and end
with the Word. Here is something that tells us what to do when we come to such
places as this: "If the Lord is in the midst of your councils, beholding
your order and love and fear, and your trembling at his word, then you are
prepared to do his work unselfishly."
Here we
are in council. Though we be different in character, if we are molded by the
same spirit of Christ, we are one. Then the church can rise as clear as the sun
at mid-day, and go forth as terrible as an army with banners.
God has
been shut away from his work, from the management of his work in general, in
state work, councils, in boards, in churches, etc. We have had false gods,
because the people have put men, and men have allowed themselves to be put,
between God and the work. God is going to work in his cause anyhow, and if you
will not get out of his way and let him work his own way, the wrath of God will
fall upon those who are in the way. Men keep themselves, and allow themselves
to be kept, in places that they should have been out of long ago. If we will
get out of his way, and let him work, he will work with a gentle hand. We do
not want a whip of cords. We would better be surprised a little now, than
become greatly surprised after awhile; and in love be reproved, than to go on
not knowing these things, and be made to flee from the temple as they did that
day, or to be altogether surprised when we cannot help it.
So if the
Lord is in the midst of your councils, beholding your love and your fear, and
your tremblings at his word, then you are prepared to do his work; and he will
not be in partnership with any unjust transactions.
Again I
read: "Man's way is to devise and scheme. God implants a principle."
And where God has implanted a principle, our life and actions together are
simply an expression of that principle. And if God's principle is not there,
then the principle of the devil is there. "Circumstances cannot work
reforms. Christianity proposes a reformation in the heart. What Christ works
within will be worked out under the dictation of a converted intellect. The
plan of beginning at the outside and trying to work inward, has always failed
and always will fail."
I cannot
apply a testimony to anybody else than myself, for it must be applied at the
heart, and work from within. God will then apply it wherever I go. And it is
the same with all of us in the testimony that comes to any, in any meeting or
council or General Conference meeting. The president cannot apply all over the
field a testimony given to him. He must accept it in his soul, and surrender to
it body, soul, and spirit; and then Jesus Christ will apply the testimony
everywhere he, the president, goes. It is a living thing in him, and then if he
goes forward, that testimony is applied by the Lord wherever he may be.
But men
have tried to apply the Testimonies to other people without having the
testimony a living thing in themselves.
Over and
over again that has been tried, and that is where the trouble is. If the
testimony is not accepted by him body, soul, and spirit, so that the principle
which is in it is a living thing in him, it matters not how much he may read
that testimony and apply it to other people, his own influence will be against
the testimony which he is applying. For if it is not lived in his life, and all
that he says and does, it is destroyed by his actions.
And that
is what has brought about the conditions that exist now. "God's way is to
give man something he has not." We are to take the thing that we have not,
that God gives us, and that will make us a power in the Lord. 2 Cor.2:14:
"Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and
maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place."
When that
principle is there, wherever we go God is talking; he is speaking. He is making
known the knowledge of himself by us in every place. It may be a business
transaction; that makes no difference. Everything we do will remind them of God
after we are gone, so he makes manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in
every place.
"God's
way is to make man something that he is not;" to make me something that I
am not. Then when a testimony comes to me telling me that I am not right, that
testimony is to make me what I am not,-to make me right. I cannot stand where I
am and apply it; but when I apply it, I shall be what I was not, and everywhere
I go God can make himself manifest.
"Man's
way is to get an easy place, and indulge appetite and selfish ambition. God's
way is to work in power. He gives the grace if the sick man realizes that he
needs it. Man is too often satisfied to treat himself according to the methods
of quackery, and then vindicate the manner of his working as right." God's
way is different. We are all sick men, and if we could realize it God would
give the cure necessary. Man prefers quackery, and thinks his manner of work is
right; but God purposes to purify the soul. John 7:38: "He that believeth
on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water."
This is
the kingdom of God within him. "Day by day men are revealing whether the
kingdom of God is within them. If Christ rules in their hearts they are gaining
strength of principle, power, ability to
stand as faithful sentinels, true reformers; for there can be no reformation
unless there is a thorough co-operation with Jesus Christ. Through the grace of
Christ men are to use their God-given faculties to reform themselves. By this
selfdenying action, which the Lord of heaven looks upon with approval, they
gain victories over their own hereditary and cultivated tendencies; then, like
Daniel, they make impressions upon others that will never be effaced. The
influence will be carried to all parts of the earth."
This is
the witness that I referred to a minute ago. When you receive a testimony and
take it into your heart and life, that makes you something you were not, and
then it is the kingdom of God within you, and the witness will be carried to
all parts of the earth. May be you will never go out of your State. Then how
can it ever be? Where you go and where I go, God is making impressions on the
heart that will never be effaced, and by them making yet other impressions, and
so on. One may harden himself against it, but it will go there just the same;
and when that impression is made by you, he will know that it is from the Lord.
The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection, but they also said that they
took knowledge of the disciples that they had been with Jesus and learned of
him after his death. In their hearts they knew that he had risen. The fact was
there, but they were not converted by it. That is the principle that is in the
Bible. From a testimony written in 1896 I read: "Many of the men who have
acted as councilors in board and council meetings need to be weeded out."
Notice, it says many. There are not very
many altogether, so that when many of them are weeded out, many cannot be left.
"Other men should take their places, for their voice is not the voice of
God. Their plans and devices are not in the order of God. The same men have
been kept in office as directors of boards, until under their own management
and their own ways, common fire is used in the place of sacred fire of God's
own kindling. These men are no more called Israel but supplanters."
Supplanters instead of Israel! In what worse trouble could we be?
Again,
from a testimony written in 1894: "Changes should have been made long ago. God would have the church roll away
her reproach." Here are the words: "The same men are not to compose
your board year by year; changes should have been made long ago. God would have
the church roll away her reproach; but as long as men who have felt fully
competent to work without accepting counsel of God are kept in office year by
year, this cannot be done. This state of things is leavening every branch of
the work, because men do not feel their need of the guidance of the Holy
Spirit."
What shall
be done? Is the Lord going to have a chance to work now? Shall he be allowed to
bring about the needed changes? This testimony is not to be applied by our
taking hold of this work and going about abruptly to make the changes. My heart
must be right before I can take part in any change. The thing to do is to
surrender ourselves to God, and then let him work through us. We do not care
who the men are if God is there.
We are not
to begin here to look about now to see what candidates we can raise up, that we
can favor and work into positions that are held now by others; for then, though
they would be out of the places, we would be in the places, and the Lord would
be as far off as before. The trouble is now that the Lord has been left out.
Now, if we would work ourselves into their places, the Lord would be left out
still, and the cause would be worse off than before. But that is not what is
wanted. There is to be no politics here; but if politics is in us, it will be
here, and will show itself here. If indeed a man does have politics in him, the
best place for him to spend it is out in the open world, amongst those who are
politicians and nothing else, for that is all he is; and if he does not spend
it there he will spend it in the church, and only spread mischief and deviltry
there. And of course it is better that such work as that should be open in the
world than in the church. So that is not what we are here for. We are here to
find God, and open our hearts that he may occupy the place from center to
circumference, in every thought and word and deed; and God is not a politician;
he is God. What we are to do is to seek God with all the heart, so that God
shall do all that is to be done; and he will do it if we let him. Give God a
chance. Those who are in the way are to get out of the way, and the rest of us
are to keep out of the way. Then God can have the place that belongs to him.
To be continued…
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