Memory Text.—“And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” John 17:3.
1. Of how great importance is it that man should know God?
“And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.” John 17:3.
“Know.”—We truly know only that with which we are in harmony. To be in harmony with God, to yield all to His holy will, is to know Him, to receive His life.
2. How did God first make a revelation of His character to this world?
“And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden.” Gen. 3:8.
“For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.” Rom. 1:20.
“Adam and Eve received knowledge through direct communion with God, and they learned of Him through His works. All created things, in their original perfection, were an expression of the thought of God. To Adam and Eve, nature was teeming with divine wisdom. But by transgression man was cut off from learning from God through direct communion, and, to a great degree, through His works. The earth, marred and defiled by sin, reflects but dimly the Creator’s glory.”—Education, page 16.
3. When, because of sin, man could no longer talk face to face with God, how was His will made known?
“So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.” Rom. 10:17.
“Adam had learned from the Creator the history of creation; he himself witnessed the events of nine centuries, and he imparted his knowledge to his descendants. The antediluvians were without books, so far as we know. Yet there are some things which would seem to indicate that they had written records. Then, also, they must have had great physical and mental vigor; they had strong memories, able to grasp and retain that which was communicated to them, and, in turn, transmit it to their posterity. And for hundreds of years there were nine generations living upon the earth contemporaneously, having the opportunity of consulting together and profiting each by the knowledge and experience of all.
“The advantages enjoyed by men of that age to gain a knowledge of God through His works have never been equaled since. And so far from being an era of religious darkness, that was an age of great light. All the world had opportunity to receive instruction from Adam, and those who feared the Lord had also Christ and angels for their teachers. And they had a silent witness to the truth in the garden of God, which for so many centuries remained among them. . . . Of Enoch it is written that he lived sixty-five years and begat a son. After that he walked with God three hundred years. During these earlier years Enoch had loved and feared God and had kept His commandments. He was one of the holy line, the preservers of the true faith, the progenitors of the promised Seed. From the lips of Adam he had learned the dark story of the fall, and the cheering one of God’s grace as seen in the promise; and he relied upon the Redeemer to come. . . . Enoch became a preacher of righteousness, making known to the people what God had revealed to him.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, pages 83–86. See also Heb. 11:1–7.
4. When God called out a whole people to stand as witnesses to the world, what other revelation was made?—The written Word. 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21.
5. Did there come a time when those who read the Bible, and were the instructors of the people, did not read the character of God therein?
“For they that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning Him.” Acts 13:27.
6. When Satan had so covered the Word with human traditions and perversions that men could no longer behold the character of God, how was another revelation made?6
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.
“We beheld His glory.”—God’s glory is His character; in other words, it is just what He is. Jesus Christ came to this world and took humanity upon Him, that He might reveal the character of God, which had been entirely misrepresented in the territory usurped by Satan.
7. What conditions demand now a fresh emphasizing of the revelation of God’s character?
2 Tim. 3:1–5 presents before us a list of eighteen different sins; among those, “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” God’s power is inseparably connected with His character. It is impossible to speak of one without speaking of the other. Therefore to deny the power of God is simply to deny His character. And to deny His character is not to know Him. With nature studied in the field of science, with the Bible in every home, and Christ preached in about every pulpit in the land, the character of God is wholly misunderstood. Repeat verse 5.
8. Through what is such a final revelation now being made?
Through the great threefold message of Rev. 14:6–14. This great message is a gathering up of every ray of Gospel light ever shed upon this world, and focusing that light upon the last generation of mankind. It is a revelation of Jesus Christ set forth in His Word and in the lives of His believing children—“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” In Christ’s church the last generation of men is to see revealed the glory of His character and His power to save.
9. What has God always done before bringing His judgments upon the earth?
“Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except He reveal His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7.
10. Give incidents illustrating this.
11. With what appeal does the threefold message of Revelation 14 open?
“And he saith with a great voice, Fear God, and give Him glory.” Rev. 14:7, first part.
“Fear God and give glory to Him.”—This is an appeal to all who would be living when the light of these messages was about to be unfolded to continue to walk in that light. When the westering sun of light and truth was shedding its last beams upon the Jewish nation, God sent a similar message and appeal to that people. “Give glory to Jehovah your God, before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.” Jer. 13:16.
12. What is the further burden of this last message?
“For the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.” Rev. 14:7, last part.
13. What distinguishes the true God from the false?—Creative power. Read Jer. 10:10–12.
14. What is the sign of His creative power?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:8–11.
“Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth them.” Eze. 20:12.
15. To what reform, then, does the first message of Revelation 14 call mankind?
“Worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Here is clearly an appeal to the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue, calling the attention of mankind to the downtrodden law of God as the great testing truth for the world.
16. What, then, must be the great test in the closing message, to prepare a people for the closing hour of God’s judgment and the coming of the Lord?
“This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:13, 14.
“Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.