Increased Light? On What?

[skyblue888]

What about this?

"Some seem to feel that they must be on probation and must prove to the Lord that they are reformed, before they can claim His blessing. But these dear souls may claim the blessing even now. They must have His grace, the Spirit of Christ (the blessing), to help their infirmities, or they cannot form a Christian character. Jesus loves to have us come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent." Faith & Works,38.

In other words:

"He who will lay hold of Christ's righteousness need not wait one moment that he himself may blot out his own sins. He need not wait until he has made a suitable repentance before he may take hold of Christ's rigthteousness. We do not understand the matter of salvation. It is just as simple as ABC. But we don't understand it." Ibid,64.

I agree that we must not make repentance an obstacle to come to Christ. We come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent, and trusting in His merits He receives us to Himself and gives us repentance and power to overcome as we become partakers of Christ's divine nature.

Right?

sky

[skyblue888]

"The Lord Jesus imparts all the powers, all the grace, all the repentance, all the inclination, all the pardon of sins in presenting His righteousness for man to grasp by living faith." F.W.24.

And "Living faith is essential for our salvation that we should lay hold upon the MERITS of the blood of the crucified and risen Saviour." Ibid,64.

"Can man repent of himself? No more than he can pardon himself." F.W.25.

"Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." Acts 5:31.

sky

[Gibs]

Yes forgiveness is there awaiting and He draws all men to obtain it. No man would not repent unless His spirit entered him and convicts him and his heart is softened and he becomes broken of his will and resolves to change and has sorrow for his past ways.

All must come to Him. The fact repentance must come at some point in the picture as we cannot continue in sin and be forgiven of it.

Ac 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Ac 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

1Jo 4:4 ¶ Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

[Samie]

Yes forgiveness is there awaiting and He draws all men to obtain it. No man would not repent unless His spirit entered him and convicts him and his heart is softened and he becomes broken of his will and resolves to change and has sorrow for his past ways.

All must come to Him. The fact repentance must come at some point in the picture as we cannot continue in sin and be forgiven of it.

Ac 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Ac 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

1Jo 4:4 ¶ Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Gibs;

Peter viewed the unbaptized and those he considered unrepentant as still in sin and therefore unclean spiritually, as evidenced by the verses you quoted. This is exactly the reason why he was given the vision (see Acts 10:9-16) that would teach him the truth he needed to know.

That vision engraved the truth in Peter's mind, leading Peter to conclude:

Acts 10:28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

God through Christ, in the 1st dimension, saved all from sin and enabled all to be able to overcome. But only those who, in the 2nd dimension, prove themselves overcomers by their positive response to the leading of the Holy Spirit, will, in the third dimension, be rewarded with life eternal.

[skyblue888]

Sometime at last the Lord is going to have a people. John heard the sealing of them, as recorded in Revelation 7. When at last He does in very fact have them, then through them the objectives of the great controversy will be finally and fully achieved, and then there is nothing to delay the gathering of the harvest and the end of this world's history.

Therefore, exactly as portrayed in Revelation 7, with the sealing of the 144,000, the wrath of Satan is excited to its limits, his self-exposure is complete, and the work is finished.

Then at once appear the great multitude. In other words, the whole arrangement of the information of Revelation 7, shows that the 144,000 are the first fruits, in the sense that when through them the final objectives of the great controversy have been achieved, the rest of the harvest can, and will, at once be reaped.

What a responsibility rests upon those who claim to be the people of the Lord at the present time, to put away sin and wrong of every and any kind, to live, through the faith that lays right hold upon the merits of the World's Redeemer, the fullness of His righteousness (Eph.3:14-19) and to plan, not for time, but for eternity.

The dead righteous cry out from their dusty beds: "How long, O Lord, how long?" And His answer must always be, "Until I have a people through whom at last can be achieved the final objectives of the great controversy. Then, O great multitude, the first fruits will have been gathered, and your reaping will come in the releasing of you all from your graves."

May the Lord of Heaven find in His people of this generation the faithful and chosen company for whom He is searching.

Can we cath a vision of the implications and the responsibilities of this hour and rise to it? May God help us to do just that before we join those in their dusty beds instead and wait there until at last some other righteous generation rises to do what we might have done but failed to do.

sky

Previously considerable emphasis was laid on the fact that the people of God will have been cleansed from all sin prior to the beginning of Jacob's trouble, so that they will be a sinless and a selfless people during that period of time. It has been shown that inasmuch as the way for the removing of sin from the actual life of any individual will be closed forever before the time of Jacob's trouble, then it is of necessity that all sin must be overcome and blotted out from the sanctuary above before this period commences.

"Jacob's history is also an assurance that God will not cast off those who have been deceived and tempted and betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with true repentance. While Satan seeks to destroy this class, God will send His angels to comfort and protect them in the time of peril. The assaults of Satan are fierce and determined, his delusions are terrible, but the Lord's eye is upon His people, and His ear listens to their cries. Their affliction is great, the flames of the furnace seem about to consume them; but the Refiner will bring them forth as gold tried in the fire. God's love for His children during the period of their severest trial is as strong and tender as in the days of their sunniest prosperity, but it is needful for them to be placed in the furnace of fire; their earthliness must be consumed, that the image of Christ may be perfectly relfected." The Great Controversy,621.

Here, then, is a picture which speaks of a refining and cleansing process which will consume their earthliness until the image of Jesus is perfectly reflected. What is more, this is to take place after the close of probation, during the period of Jacob's trouble. We cannot use these words do deny the truth already read from the Word of God, which tells us of a people who have been cleansed of all sin and who have been pronounced by the Saviour as being holy, righteous, and clean when probation closes. (Rev.22:11)

Those who hold the view that we cannot be sinless until the second coming of Christ when the Lord shall change these vile bodies like unto His glorious body so that incorruption will take the place of corruption and immortality the place of mortality, take the word earthliness to mean something to do with sin. However, to do this is at once to admit that there is a contradiction in the Scriptures, but this there can never be, for there is only the most perfect consistency in the Word of God. God never contradicts Himself, for the moment that He did, then He would make Himself to be a liar.

Thus it is, that we have before us clear statements which show that all sins must have been overcome by the people of God before the close of probation, so that even when under the greatest pressure of discouragement and trial designed to reveal the slightest imperfection, shortcoming, or weakness, cannot even find the least existence of any remembrance of sin in them. On the other hand, we have this statement which speaks of a refining and purifying process designed to completely consume all our earthliness, so that the image of Jesus might be fully and perfectly revealed. It is our task by diligent, prayerful, thoughtful study to come to the place where we understand just what earthliness is, and as to why it is not fully removed before the close of probation, even though we have attained to full maturity of christian character.

to be continued

[skyblue888]

To assist us in this understanding we turn to the following statement from The Review and Herald, August 12, 1884, (also in Our High Calling,321), "The time of trouble is the crucible that is to bring out Christ-like characters. It is designed to lead the people of God to renounce Satan and his temptations. The last conflict will reveal Satan to them in this true character, that of a cruel tyrant, and it will do for them what nothing else could do, uproot him entirely from their affections. For to love and cherish sin, is to love and cherish its author, that deadly foe of Christ. When they excuse sin and cling to perversity of character, they give Satan a place in their affections, and pay him homage."

One must take care not to misinterpret the first sentence in this statement. It dos not say that the time of trouble will give us Christ-like characters, but that it will bring out Christ-like characters. It is the truth that affliction can only bring out what is already there. If we have an evil character, then the crucible of affliction will bring out what is in and develop it in to a higher pitch of evil, but if we have a Christ-like character already, then the crucible of affliction will bring that out into full and beautiful display and development. It is for this reason that Paul said, 'Knowing that tribulation works patience.'" Romans 5:3.

Everyone knows by experience that tribulation works impatience, because this is the truth in the experience of the unregenerate, and all of us have been in that state. But Paul is not here speaking of the unregenerate but of those who, 'being justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:1-2.

The real point and message of the statement quoted above is that during the time of Jacob's trouble the people of God will so come to see Satan in his true light and character that they will forever renounce all affection and sympathy for him. It will bring about a condition of such hatred for his principles that a full and total separation from him will be effected.

to be continued

[skyblue888]

Some may argue that this is equivalent to a complete cleansing from sin, but there is a difference. The difference is revealed in the experience of the unfallen angels who were brought to the same place where their affection for Satan was finally uprooted by the demonstration of the fullness of righteousness upon the cross of Calvary. This truth is made plain in the following words which describe, first the way in which the evil one went to war upon Christ at the cross and then goes on to show the result of this, so far as he and the loyal angels were concerned.

"Could one sin have been found in Christ, had He in one particular yielded to Satan to escape the terrible torture, the enemy of God and man would have triumphed. Christ bowed His head and died, but He held fast His faith and His submission to God. 'And I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.'" Revelation 12:10.

"Satan saw that his disguise was torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had revealed himself as a murderer. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth his work was restricted. Whatever attitude he might assume, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ's brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken." D.A.761.

Now in this statement the word "sympathy" is used in regard to the connection still held between Satan, who was once Lucifer, the great beloved of the angels in Heaven, and the loyal angels who had never fallen into actual sin. One may argue that there is a difference between sympathy and affection, and it is true there was a lingering affection for Satan in the hearts of the loyal angels up until the time of the cross. This is made clear enough in this following statement:

"In this choice (that of the Jews and Romans in Christ's trial and crucifixion) the principles of Satan were made manifest; and the hosts of Heaven, and all the worlds that God had created, judged that Satan was an accuser of the brethren, a liar, and murderer. In Heaven and among the unfallen worlds the question of Satan's deceiving power, of his malignant principles, was settled, and the perfect purity and holiness of Christ, who was bearing the test and trial in behalf of fallen man, was forever proved. Through the development of Satan's character and principles, he was forever uprooted from the affection of the unfallen worlds, and the controversy concerning his claims and the claims of Christ was forever settled in Heaven. The righteousness manifested in the character of Christ was forever to be the anchor, the saving hope, of the world. Every soul who chooses Christ can say with faith, 'The Lord is my righteousness.'" 1 S.M.348.

These statements, then, establish the fact that until the crucifixion the loyal angels were still loyal to God, but not without reservations. They still possessed a degree of affection for Satan, and a certain level of sympathy still existed between him and them. This was because, in the first case, they had had a very deep love for him and a rich and wonderful fellowship with him, which gave considerable weight to his arguments in respect to the faults which he claimed to have found in the government of God. Those arguments were so convincingly and cunningly presented that they could not be lightly dismissed and passed over, all of which bound the angels in a degree of sympathy and affection to the arch deceiver right down through those four thousand years of time.

The point is, though, that the fact that they did have this sympathy and affection for the devil himself did not make them sinners, nor did it fill them with that sinfulness which would have required their expulsion from Heaven. Though they had reservations about God, they remained fully loyal to Him, being prepared to trust Him to work things out to the place where they could see for themselves that that which He had declared to be so was actually so. While they had both sympathy with and affection for the arch-deceiver, in no sense of the word had they gone over to his side to join him in this work of rebellion against God. Therefore they had not become sinful. Yet, while they did not need to be cleansed from sin, they did need to be cleansed or freed from this affection and sympathy before the kingdom of God could be established in absolute and eternal security.

That this might be achieved, the controversy was permitted to go on until this objective should be reached. For the angels and the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds, it was largely reached when righteousness gave its fullest and most powerful demonstration on the cross of Calvary.

to be continued

[skyblue888]

That which had to be done for the pure and the perfect angels must also be done for men, both for those who have joined Satan in his rebellion against the government of God and for those who have broken with him and have joined God in His warfare against sin. For the vast majority of mankind this will be done at the end of the thousand years when they are given a full and complete view of the great controversy from its very inception, but in order for that picture, then, to really tell the story there has to be a time when the issues on each side are fully developed during the period of the great controversy itself.

This is to say, that things must come to that point where no question is left while men are still living upon the earth; so that both the righteous and the wicked will see as the angels saw it--that Satan and his ways are no good at all.

There will be a difference, though, between the way in which the wicked will see this and the way in which the righteous will see this. For the wicked, the regret at the loss and the anger toward the one who has caused them the ruin will not be because they hate the sin but only because they do not want to suffer the consequences of the sin. On the other hand, the righteous will hate the sin itself and will want nothing at all to do with it forever. They will be totally and eternally cured from it by this final experience when they are deprived forever of all affection and sympathy for Satan and his ways.

This difference is very real and very important, for if it was not there, then both the righteous and the wicked could be taken into heaven; for if they were both cured of sin in the same way--that is, if they had both severed all connection with Satan on the same grounds--then the wicked would have as much right to the kingdom as the righteous.

Today we may think that we have no sympathy with, nor affection for Satan. We may think that we are wholly on the Lord's side, but this is only because we do not yet understand that every time we do things of this earth, every time we follow out a principle in our dealings with others which in the least degree sets self and self interest first, then, to that very degree are we showing affection for and sympathy for Satan.

Let us never forget that we were born of our father the devil, as well as of our flesh and blood human parents. Satan is the husband of the human race, and we have produced much in connection with him. Therefore, just as there was a deep bond of union and fellowship formed between Satan and the angels before he fell, so there is a deep bond of fellowship between Satan and the human family. Even though we have been born again and come into the family of God, much of that affection remains, and must be taken away. But this is not achieved in the lives of those who have gone down into the grave. Every such one had gone down without this work completely done in and for him. Not until the resurrected righteous ones stand within the holy city, the New Jerusalem, and witness the whole panorama of the great controversy will they see it and know it fully.

to be continued

[skyblue888]

The whole picture of all this tells us that only a righteous people can be fully divorced from their relations with the devil. The angels of God lived for four thousand years in righteousness before the time came when they lost all affection and sympathy for the devil. During that time they were able to see far more of the devil and his works than we can upon this earth; for so much that is hidden to us is open to them. The righteous dead will likewise have become fully and eternally righteous before they see the true and real character of the devil and thus lose all affection for him, for it will not be until after their resurrection unto eternal life that this will be achieved for them.

This, then, would indicate to us that no man, while he still has any sinfulness in him, can possibly be fully and completely divorced from the devil to the point where any sympathy or affection is forever taken away. These facts, then, are in perfect harmony with the experience of the righteous during the period of Jacob's trouble. They will enter that peirod a perfected and wholly righteous people in whom there is no sin whatsoever. It will all have been cleansed away during the hours of probation, so that, search their hearts as they will, they will find nothing of any remembrance of sin in them at all during that period. Thus they will be as pure and holy as the angels, but, like the angels before the cross, will still need to be cleansed of all sympathy and affection for the devil and his ways. This is the work which must be done for them through the time of Jacob's trouble. This is the removing of their earthliness, not the removal of sin from their lives for this will have been accomplished before during the hours of probation.

to be continued

sky

[skyblue888]

The time is coming, however, when, during the time of Jacob's trouble, the people of God will have become so completely divorced from Satan and his ways that the law of self-preservation will have no pull upon them whatsoever anymore. Their only trust will be in God, and into His hands will their lives be so completely surrendered, that come what may, it will be all the same to them, provided that His righteousness is forever established.

Today we may think that our lives are completely surrendered to God, but let your mind dwell for a moment upon a picture, such as the receiving of a notice that you have lost your job; a black ban has been placed upon your services; you are to be evicted from your home without compensation; and then to be exiled off without a penny in your pocket to a poverty stricken, overcrowded country where they speak a foreign language. Let your mind dwell on this and then study your feelings. If your mind could really imagine this happening to you in reality, and then you found that it left you perfectly calm and resting in God, then you could believe that earthliness had been cleansed out of you, and you were ready for translation.

The real fact is, that if you feel that way, then you are self-deceived, for no one will come to this state until they have been brought to full sanctification by the finishing work of the latter rain in their souls and then, in turn, have passed through the affliction of the time of Jacob's trouble.

What a people they will be, who, while living upon this earth, come to this place where they have the fullness of the character of Christ within and have become completely divorced from all sympathy with, and affection for the enemy of all souls. They will be the means whereby the Lord will be able to display the fullness of His righteousness to the place where even the wicked will see the real nature of Satan and his principles, and will leave him forever even though they will still retain their enmity against the Lord of Heaven and earth.

Then the purpose of the great controversy will have been achieved, and the Lord will be able at last to return and take His faithful children home to be with Him in eternity. Here are the 144,000 who will fulfill their special role of revealing in a special way the wonders of God's love and compassion throughout eternity. May the Lord give to the faithful of the present generation the privilege of being that company.

sky

[Gibs]

Sky,

As you stated on above, yesterday,

"Today we may think that we have no sympathy with, nor affection for Satan. We may think that we are wholly on the Lord's side, but this is only because we do not yet understand that every time we do things of this earth, every time we follow out a principle in our dealings with others which in the least degree sets self and self interest first, then, to that very degree are we showing affection for and sympathy for Satan."

A man has a lot to overcome there is no doubt and that is why our case is so hopeless without Him within. And the cleaning up the inward man even then takes some time. This is the reason we must be at it in full earnestnes that we may be recipents of the latter rain and it is time and probably falling on some out around us.

I will just add this great verse,

Joh 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

1Jo 4:4 ¶ Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.