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Here Are They that Keep the Commandments

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 11, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 28.

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“Here Are They that Keep the Commandments”

By T. E. Bowen

T. E. BOWEN
The three messages of Revelation 14 develop a commandment-keeping company. The record given of them is not testimony borne by themselves, but by Jesus himself. Of them he says: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
The prophet John’s attention is directed to them, after viewing the great mass of humanity represented to him as worshipers of the beast or his image, and designated by a mark as belonging to those who “dwell upon the earth.” By another passage of Scripture we are shown that this company far exceeds the little company pointed out as keepers of the commandments: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the beast], whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13: 18.
What an encouragement and victory for the grace and power of God’s living word it is, that in the midst of all the corruption and sin down at the end of the world, even amid the last generation of men, a few actually “keep the commandments.We are told so often that it is impossible to keep God’s holy law, even by those who stand forth as representatives of Christ. But it can be kept. Jesus kept it. And the same faith that was in Jesus when he trod the rugged pathway on earth, if in us now, will enable us to keep it, also.
The Word of God hidden in the heart works these wonderful changes in the life. It is through the power of the word that life is given. Paul recognized this in the charge he gave the elders of Ephesus: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
God’s people have power through the simplicity of the Word. Through that, the Spirit will operate with power. “The flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
It was the word of Jesus that bore Peter up as he left the boat to walk upon the water. It was through the faith Peter and John had in Christ’s word that the impotent man arose, and with joy accompanied them into the temple. It was through believing the word that thousands were joined unto the Lord in a day at Pentecost and afterward. It was by faith in that Word made flesh that all the mighty miracles were performed which followed the believers everywhere.
God’s word is the same to-day. Life and healing are in it for the believing child of God, as when Peter and John, Paul and Silas, labored for their fellow men.
The power of God’s word is now found in the three angels’ messages. Men may fail, and even fall out by the way, and turn and oppose the truth with all their power, but the message never will change nor fail. It is infallible. “Man is fallible; but the message is infallible. With it all should be in harmony; it is the center of interest, in which all hearts should be united. We may get up points that are of no consequence, and seek to maintain them; but we shall gain no strength by so doing. The message is to prepare a people to stand in the last great day, and to be united in heaven above. None should feel that it is of no special importance whether they are in union with their brethren or not; for those who do not learn to live in harmony here will never be united in heaven.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in “Historical Sketches,” page 124.
This message develops a commandment-keeping people. Some will be truly united upon this holy platform of truth, and filled with the love and unity of heaven, thus becoming prepared to enter that holy place as citizens of the better country. God is no respecter of persons. By complying with the conditions given us in the Word, and through its sanctifying, subduing influence by the operation of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts and lives, we may be a part of that commandment-keeping company that shall one day ere long stand upon that Mount Zion and “sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”