Preach the Message by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 1, 1910

Preach the Message

By W. A. S.

THE key-note of the advent message is the soon coming of the Lord. And the gospel for these last days is the definite advent message.

It is not the advent truths and the gospel. The advent message itself is the gospel. No one can truly present these advent truths without presenting in them the saving grace of Christ. And in the full presentation of the gospel of Christ's saving grace for this hour is in the presentation of the threefold message of Revelation 14.

The Holy Spirit gives power to the preaching of the message for this time, and witnesses to it in the conversion and salvation of souls.

Just before the manifestation of Christ at his first advent, came John the Baptist, preaching the fulfilment of the sure word of prophecy in that day. It “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” He preached the fulfilling word, and hearts were converted, and multitudes “were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”

On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up crying, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet;” and as he presented the gospel of Christ in fulfilling prophecy, the Holy Spirit bore witness in convicting hearts. So in every sermon recorded of the apostolic times; as Paul says, they declared the “glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us,”

And now again the “glad tidings,” the gospel of the grace of God, is summed up in a definite message of fulfilling prophecy. The gospel message for the last days is described by Inspiration:—

“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 the preaching of the everlasting gospel, as the prophet heard it, was the thrilling declaration to men that the hour of God's judgment is come; that men should worship the God that made heaven and earth; that Babylon is fallen; that if any man worship the beast and its image, and receive the mark of apostasy, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.

This is hardly an outline of the gospel theme according to popular ideas. But the Word of God declares that when the last days come, the preaching of the everlasting gospel is the preaching of this very message.

This does not mean that we are to present these solemn, commanding truths, and then preach some gospel. These solemn truths are the gospel, and are to be presented with the grace of Christ as the savor and the fiber and the vitalizing power in them all. These stern messages are the voice of Jesus crying to men in our time, Repent ye, and believe the gospel.

And truly we need the grace of Christ in fullest measure, who carry such messages, in order that the tone of the Saviour's invitation to the sinner may be in the stern warnings of the prophetic Word. We have not merely to show men what is truth, but also the way of making that truth the saving power in the personal life. Many a time have we who speak or teach to ask ourselves, as we sit down after presenting some line of advent truth, “Did I speak it so that every sinner in the company heard the invitation to surrender the heart to the Lord Jesus? and was the way of salvation made plain for wandering feet?”

It is not enough to tell men what to do, without telling them how to do. And all the time the definite message, truly borne, is preaching to men the what and the how—the way to walk and the power by which to walk. There is justification by faith in the message of Daniel 2, and the power of the Holy Spirit in Revelation 12 and 13. The definite advent message—straight and clear and sharply defined, with no apologies for it—has in it the love of Christ, and conversion, and all the glorious truths of justification by faith, and the

power of the Holy Spirit. These themes are not side specialties; and men have never done themselves or the people the best service by making specialties of them, as if the gospel were made up on the department system.

The whole gospel of the grace of God is summed up in the definite third angel's message, and the key-note of it all is the soon coming of Christ. God give us grace to cry the message everywhere.

W. A. S.