p. 8 | Lessons in Liberty by W. M. Healey

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, Cal. · Feb 7, 1911

Lessons in Liberty

By W. M. Healey

VI. Individual Help from the Lord

GOD called Abraham from among his kindred, and separated him from the influences of their idolatrous practises, that he might learn the lessons the Lord would teach him. He gained his final victory when he gave up his son Isaac, in whom his hopes rested for this present life, and also as the ancestor of the coming Saviour. In giving his son, he was left without human support, and leaned wholly upon God.

Moses was obliged to flee from the pomp and splendor of Egypt's courts, to separate from the influences of her pride, her flatteries and jealousies. He was also obliged to separate from his own people, who disheartened him by their lack of love for each other, by their unfaithfulness to God, and their ingratitude toward those who would help them. In the land of Midian he sought God by himself; and when he had learned to trust in Him, and Him alone, God called him back to Egypt to deliver His people.

Noah, Daniel, and Job all learned to trust in God alone. They were counted righteous in His sight, but the Lord said they could only deliver themselves in the day of wrath. "If I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out My fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast: tho Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." Eze. 14:19, 20.

When the Lord sent a man to curse Jeroboam's altar at Bethel, He told him not to tarry with any man, and to return by a different route from the one by which he went. The man did as he was told in pronouncing the curse, and refused to dine with the King, and started to return by another way, when a prophet came to him, and told him he had a message from the Lord that he should turn, and dine with him. The man turned back, and lost his life. 1 Kings 13:1-24.

God has taught us to harken to the voice of His prophets, by whom He would send messages to His people to the close of probation. The lesson He would teach us from the experience of the man who turned back at the prophet's word, is not that we regard His prophets less, but that each one should learn to regard God's Word above all others, and that no influence or word of any should turn the child of God from what he knows the Lord has said. The man knew what his duty was, and had no right to try, or to permit others to influence him, to shift the responsibility to even a prophet. Comparatively few have rejected the words of the Lord's prophets because they prophesied falsely. Many have rejected their words because there was truth in them, and they neither contradicted other words of God, nor took away the personal responsibility of the individual.

The Lord not only holds the individual responsible to Him, but He comes and reveals Himself to each one who learns the lesson of personal consecration to Him. When Christ asked the disciples, "Whom say ye that I am?" "Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Based upon the Revelation of God

"And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church." Matt. 16:16-18.

Peter was blessed in the fact that the Father in heaven had revealed to him the great truth that he was in the presence of Christ, the Son of the living God. This revelation had not come by or through flesh and blood, but directly from God. Jesus said, "No man can come unto Me except My Father draw him." "National Reformers" would make laws, and by them try to drive men to Christ. God was drawing Peter to Jesus by a revelation to him through His Holy Spirit. Christ said, "Upon this rock I will build My church"—the rock of God's revelation to man, of God's Holy Spirit revealing truth to the individual heart and mind. Man has tried to build the church through the legislation of flesh and blood; but Christ, by the revelation and striving of the Holy Spirit. Christ may be said to be the rock on which the church is founded; because the revelation to man, by the Spirit, was because of Him and His sacrifice.

Jesus said, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." John 14:23. These words are worth the full value; they are a promise to the individual, of having the Father and the Son come and abide with him. This promise does not rest on worshiping God because there is a law to compel it, or because it is popular to worship, or on account of any personal gain, but on the fact that the individual loves the Lord. This leads him to keep His words, and brings the Lord to him.

There are many things in life which disappoint us, and grieve us sorely, that are easily borne by having Christ and the Father with us. At the marriage in "Cana of Galilee," where the mother of Jesus presided, she was much worried because, by some means, there had been a neglect to prepare sufficient wine. In her dilemma she came to Jesus and told Him her trouble. Then came a most comforting answer (which, however, does not so clearly appear in our King James translation), as He said, "What is that to Me and thee?" (Douay Bible.) Such trouble was great to the woman alone, but what was it to Christ and her together? His mother understood His words to mean that in the proper moment He would help. This is evident from the fact that she told the servants to do whatever He should command them. John 2:1-11.

The wine at this feast was not a necessity, only a long established custom; and yet in a matter of no more importance than this, Jesus worked a miracle at the request of one woman, His mother. He has promised as much to any other woman that does the will of God, as He did to His mother. "For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother." Matt. 12:50.

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