Untitled article by C. A. Osgood

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · September 17, 1867

CONDUCT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GOSPEL.

By C. A. Osgood

A SHORT SERMON BY C. A. OSGOOD.

TEXT. “Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.” Phil. i. 27.

The gospel is a message of divine truth, and is good tidings to our unfortunate and sinful race. And our Lord before his ascension to Heaven commanded his disciples to proclaim this message in all the world. Divine truth is not theoretical only, but also practical. It consists not alone in correct ideas in the head, but also in right feelings in the heart, and right conduct in the life. The holy lives of those who have received the gospel, have often confounded and convinced skeptics whom no arguments could reach. And indeed, the success of the gospel cannot be complete unless its holy and benevolent principles are acted out by its adherents. As Christ’s disciples do this, they let the light they have received so shine before men that they see their good works, and are led to glorify God.

Under the latest edition of the gospel, the third angel’s message, it is no less important and necessary, than in former ages, that those who receive it should act in accordance with its solemn truths, and so walk worthy of God who hath called them to his kingdom and glory.

The word “conversation,” in our text, and indeed in most places in the Bible, has a wider signification than as commonly used at the present time. It includes not only what we say, but what we do. The real sense of the text is: Let your behaviour be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.

We will then for a few moments contemplate some things in human conduct which are, and some which are not, “as it becometh the gospel of Christ.”

And, 1. As the gospel is a gospel of peace, if we would walk worthy of it, we must as much as it is possible, “live peaceably with all men.” Angry words and actions do not become the followers of Him, “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, and when he suffered, threatened not,” and who, in this respect, left us an example that we should follow in his steps. A “meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price.” And this spirit acted out by Christians, especially when provocations arise, sheds a lustre on the religion the gospel teaches; while angry and harsh expressions, murmuring and fault-finding, coming from them, make religion appear very unlovely.

2. If we would live as becometh the gospel, we must “walk humbly with God” and men. Jesus, the “author of our faith,” humbled himself very low for our sakes. Sin has puffed us up with pride. But God’s grace is designed to bring down every high thought, to make us as little children before God. To indulge in boasting or vain glory, or any species of pride, is to be unlike the Saviour, does not indicate that we have been converted to God, does not recommend the gospel; but on the contrary tends to hinder the influence of truth. The humble Christian exalts God, exalts Christ, exalts the gospel.

3. A proper concern for the interests of others, that leads us to make sacrifices for their good, is becoming the gospel. We should not live for ourselves alone, but for others’ good. Jesus Christ became poor, that we might become rich; made himself of no reputation, that we might attain to high honors; suffered, that we might be happy; died, that we might live. We are required to have “this mind which was also in him.” Living lives of self-denying benevolence, we imitate his glorious example, we shed a blessed light around us, and act as the gospel teaches. When we live under the influence of selfishness we are in darkness ourselves, and our examples make the darkness around us more dense.

4. The influence of the gospel upon individuals is progressive. The mighty work of preparation for the Judgment is not done in a moment. The child of God by constant growth, is to become matured, a full-grown man in Christ Jesus. He is to “grow in grace” and Divine knowledge. He is to run with perseverance the Christian race, and never stand still till the Master appears, or he sleeps in death. Thus, Paul, after running this race many years, said, “This one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” An increase of piety, a growth in knowledge and usefulness, a greater interest in those things which God has promised, as time advances, accords well with the design of the gospel.

5. To have our conduct in accordance with God’s word we must be “temperate in all things.” We are living when “the end of all things is at hand.” This is an age when multitudes walk in the “lusts of the flesh,” “revelings and banquatings.” And “they think it strange” that “we do not run to the same excess of riot.” Now is the time when the signs in the heavens are in the past, when the coming of the Saviour is very near, and when our Lord himself exhorts us not to be “overcharged with surfeiting,” and so the day of his coming come upon us unawares. Now is the time more than ever before, when very many make a God of their appetite. The gratification of the appetite, with such, absorbs the heart’s affections; costs more time, expense, and thought, than the worship and cause of God. These, many of them, are not aware that they are the “enemies of the cross of Christ,” but such is the fact. God wants in these last days, not a weak and sickly people, but those who by their strength, beauty and mental clearness, can honor him and be better fitted to be soldiers of the cross. In order to attain to this we must be strictly temperate.

6. We must manifest in our behaviour the absence of worldly-mindedness. This is an age when the love of the world prevails to an extent that is alarming. Men are intensely selfish. They desire to be quickly rich. Numbers are “heaping up treasures for the last days, which will eat their flesh as it were fire.” The gospel says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” The Saviour bids us not to be “overcharged with the cares of this life.” He knew that if our hearts should become overcharged with these, we would lose our interest in present truth, and continuing so, we should slumber on till the time of preparation for his coming would be over. How inconsistent is a spirit of worldly-mindedness, in those who profess to look for Jesus. How it hinders people from inquiring after truth! and how does it cause them to despise it!

7. The gospel teaches us to use the powers of speech in a way to glorify God. His grace can tame unruly tongues. The 144,000, on Mount Zion, Rev. xiv, 5, will be those in whose mouth no guile will be found. We must be truthful. We must fulfill our promises. We must not be deceitful. Filthiness, foolish talking and jesting, must not be once named among us, if we would let our conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ. “Let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” “For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment.”

8. The gospel message is earnest. It speaks in warning tones. It threatens those who do not obey it with “the wrath of God without mixture.” We live

in a grand and awful time. The harvest of the earth is ripening. The wicked are growing worse and worse. The meek are seeking meekness. “Many shall be purified, made white and tried.” Probation’s hours are growing less and less. In a little while it will be said; “He that is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous let him be righteous still!”

How earnest then ought we to be in all our religious duties? How diligent, that we may be found of the Lord without spot and blameless?”