GOD’S WARNING OF HIS CLOSING WORK.
By S.
Commenting on Lesson 10, Page 5.
God never designed that sin should taint and corrupt this earth. He “made man upright,” and was satisfied with the work of His hands. The self-seeking corruptor of angels transferred his blandishments to earth, and, as God could not force the love, and would not force the obedience, of His creatures, man must stand the test. He failed; he sinned; he brought death into the world through his sin. From then till now the corroding work has been in progress. God does not design that the cruel work of sin and death shall be allowed to continue eternally in His realm. At the finishing of a certain work the Lord declares: “And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12. At that time will be the fulfilment of Christ’s promise to His followers: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:3. At that same time “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10. That puts an end to the work of sin in this present world; that puts a stop to the making of graves and the breaking of heart-strings; that opens the great prison-house in which the “dead in Christ” are held; that ushers in the last epoch in the long, red story of sin. God does not permit this great climax without faithful warnings to His creatures. His own declaration in Amos 3:7 is in reality a promise that the warning message of Rev. 14:6-14 would be given before the close of probation. The first declares that God will do nothing without warning the world of what He is to do. The persons who perished in the Flood were warned as well as they who were saved. The manner in which they related themselves to the warning determined whether they should ride in safety upon the Flood or find in it the instrument of their destruction. Just so with God’s last great warning message of Revelation 14. It is the guide board that points the way right over the burnings of the last day into the place prepared by our Saviour for the redeemed. By heeding it and rightly relating ourselves to God, we find, as did Noah and his family of old, the only shelter there is. By rejecting it, as the millions of that day rejected the warnings of God through Noah, we perish even as they did in God’s work of purging the world of sin. The trouble with the people of Noah’s time was that they had forgotten God. In the midst of His glorious works, which had not then been so marred with sin as they are now, they did not see or did not care to see, the hand that fashioned them. The father of Noah was fifty-six years old before the death of Adam; and 126 years after the death of Adam, Noah was born. It would thus seem that there was no excuse for the forgetting of God so almost universal in Noah’s day. They had the verbal account of creation only one step removed from the first-created human being. While the creative power of God was still manifest in His works, and stood as a witness for Him before the world, yet, because the people to whom they witnessed forgot Him, God gave them another witness—the written Word, and included in that, as a further witness, the record of man’s own course as well as God’s dealings. But even with that they forgot Him. Failing to know God, they could not rightly interpret His character. So they made a religion of dead forms, and broke the spirit of every commandment while they made a burden of the letter. Then it was that, while having these two witnesses, the works and the Word, God gave the world another—the life-example of His own Son born in the flesh; but they had so far forgotten the principles of God’s government and God’s character, that they could crucify this last witness. Now we have the three—the works, the written Word, and the Word made flesh; and these three are witnessing now to this generation. Now those who hold out against God will be sinning against threefold light. In the culminating work of this age, under the searchlight of the accumulated witnessing of all the past, come the final warnings of God to a world that is deciding now whether it will resist and perish, or yield and live. “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.” That is the warning call of this hour. Beyond the execution of that judgment sin and the sinner can not go. There is still time in which to determine what we shall do; but we know that time is short. Of those who heed that warning it is said: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. So we see the connection between giving glory to God and keeping the commandments of God. There will be no other warning message given to this world. That ushers in the finishing work; and they who are found unprepared then will remain so forever. It is the most solemn warning this world has ever been given. S.