p. 410 | The True Test by F. N. Lamplough

Signs Publishing Co. · Melbourne, Victoria · Jun 28, 1920

FromAustraliasian Signs of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 26.

The True Test

By F. N. Lamplough

F. N. LAMPLOUGH

God today is testing the world by the special message of Rev. 14:6-12, which has been going to the world since 1844, calling attention to the judgment and its requirements—the moral law of ten commandments that God gave to mankind for their observance. Eccl. 12:13.

Why this test? God saw that men would make void His law. The Scriptures tell us a false Sabbath would be exalted before the world. History tells us how it came in. God has allowed it, and the truth regarding it was not made fully manifest to the world until the time of the end.

God is now calling His people out from the various religions and out from the world, to unite in the one faith and doctrine—the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. His loyal and disloyal subjects are thus made known. His loyal people keep the law in its entirety, keep the definite seventh day which it commands , the day God calls “His,” and of which Jesus declared Himself the Lord. It is a sign between them and God that they know Him and love Him who has bought them with His blood.

Many professing to speak by the Word of the Lord seek to draw away the people from the observance of His requirements, and point them to the customs and fashions of the world, telling them that “what was good enough for their fathers is good enough for them,” and to “have nothing to do with new-fangled doctrines.”

God’s Word tells us that men shall arise who will draw away disciples after them, men who are “deceiving and being deceived,” because they “received not the love of the truth”; they believe a lie, being drawn away by their own lust and enticed. Their religion is a mere profession. They say, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that the Lord requires of them. How fearful will be the awakening when they realise

that their deception has led them to death.

Our first duty is to listen to God. Nothing we can get in this world will atone for our loss of eternity, and failure to listen to God will make the loss of eternity certain. Let us look at things in the light of God’s Word, and not by the lights of human reasoning coloured by the selfish interests of man.

The Results of Disobedience

The misery, pain, sickness, and death we see in the world remind us constantly of the results of disobedience, and as we read the records of God’s dealing with men since the beginning, we see that none who are wilfully disobedient will escape the final punishment.

Our Lord in His teaching insists again and again that a man’s responsibility for what he does corresponds exactly to his opportunities of knowing what is right, and he will be judged accordingly.

“God must be obeyed. In that one word you have the key to the life and death of Jesus.” Jesus says: “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” “There shall in no wise enter into it [the heavenly city], anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

More Than Profession Needed

Mere profession of adherence to God, however enthusiastic, is to be no passport into the kingdom of heaven. God looks upon what we do, not what we say, as a test of character. A tree is known by its fruits. Is our fruit unto God? Are we obedient unto His requirements? The day is coming when each one will stand face to face with God. Nothing will help us then except that which has been made by God’s grace genuinely our own. God wants us, above all things, to be sincere in our service for Him, and Jesus Christ has promised to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. The salvation He gives is a restoration to obedience, as He is “the Author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” Mercy still calls for all men to repent and turn to the Lord and live. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

“Look at the generations of old and see, did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded; or did any abide in His fear and was forsaken; or whom did He ever despise that called on Him?” Ecclesiasticus 2:10.