Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
To set the Lord of hosts apart is to hold Him holy in the heart and revere Him as supreme Ruler with rightful dominion over His church, and to make Him fear and dread is to give Him alone reverent fear and awe, including fear of offending Him. It forbids walking in the way of the people around, calling a confederacy what they call a confederacy, and fearing what they fear or being afraid. To those who thus honor Him He becomes a sanctuary, refuge and protection, but to the disobedient who reject His warnings He becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offense, which is Christ, the sure foundation to those who trust Him. Therefore God alone is to be feared rather than men, their threats, alliances, censure or authority, and His people must not enter into confederacy with unbelievers nor carry on His work by worldly wisdom and standards, but receive orders from above and follow His voice. To make Him fear and dread is to honor and obey Him in practice and not merely claim belief, moving forward in faith and courage, bearing a clear-cut witness to His law and holding to His Word as tested by the law and the testimony.
Words and Historical Setting
To set apart the Lord of hosts is to set him apart as holy, supremely in the heart, and to revere him alone with fear and awe as supreme Ruler with rightful dominion over his church. His people honor his authority and speak out against evil deeds that bring judgment. For the minister this means preaching truth as it is in Jesus, clear and close and practical, not to please men but to please God who tries hearts, with power and love and a sound mind, feeding the flock and declaring the whole gospel.
To let him be fear and dread is to regard him alone with reverent fear and awe rather than people, their fears, their loyalties, applause, censure, loss of support, or human authority. This includes fearing to offend the living God, which leads to humility and keeps from assuming control over others' consciences. This reverence goes with waiting on and trusting in him, staying true to the light given and holding to sacred landmarks.
The command forbids walking in the way of this people, calling a confederacy what the people call a confederacy, and fearing their fear or being afraid of what they fear. It means the world is not the criterion, orders come from above, the Lord must work, and his voice and instruction must be heard and followed. All speech is to be tested by the law and the testimony, for if speech is not according to that word there is no light in it.
Its setting was Judah in apostasy when the sanctuary was closed and the nation was in distress, and it strengthened the faithful remnant who remained loyal to honor God alone rather than be led into idolatry. To those who do so he becomes a sanctuary. It belongs to Isaiah 8:11-20, continuing the declaration of Isaiah 8:9-10 that human association will be broken in pieces and human counsel will come to nothing because God is with his people.
Christ as Sanctuary and Stumbling Stone
To those who set apart the Lord of hosts and make Him alone their fear and dread, He becomes a sanctuary, a refuge and a protection. They are not to share the fear that drives others into confederacies over human alliances and threats, but to revere God alone and trust Him as their sanctuary. When the powers of the enemy muster and men combine for selfish purposes, this fear of God presses brethren together, binds them up with Christ, humbles hearts and ends criticism and variance. Because God is with His people, every evil alliance formed against them shall be broken in pieces and its counsel shall come to nothing and not stand, as when Rome worked through human agencies to stop Protestantism, so the saints can look calmly on the array of evil and meet attack as Jesus met Satan, confident that because Christ lives they shall live, that evil advances only as Christ permits, and that each step brings them nearer the great white throne and the destruction of the confederacy of evil.
To the disobedient who reject His warnings He becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offense to both houses of Israel and a gin and snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that many stumble and fall and are broken and snared and taken. Those who resist His will and refuse His refuge find Him a stumbling stone and snare rather than a sanctuary. The stone is Christ, shown to Isaiah in prophetic vision reaching to the first advent as a sanctuary and sure foundation for those who trust Him. His treatment at His first advent is pictured by the rejected stone that was tested and made the temple cornerstone, placing reverence for God alongside the warning that Christ will be a stumbling stone to many in Israel.
His experience is pictured by the chief cornerstone prepared for Solomon's temple, a stone of unusual size and peculiar shape made ready at the quarry. Rejected by the builders as an annoyance in the way, it lay long exposed to air and sun and storm without crack. Then sought to bear great weight and to resist sun and frost and tempest, it was tried by severe pressure, accepted, and set in exact fit as the sure place on which the safety of the whole building depends. To believers who come to Him He is precious as the living foundation-stone on which they are built up as living stones into a spiritual house, but to the disobedient who stumble at the word He becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
Both ancient and modern Israel have stumbled over that Rock, who is Christ. The offense is His life of self-denial and self-sacrifice, His purity, His exalted standard, and His perfect obedience to the law of God. The great sacrifice to redeem man from Satan's power and the curse of the law is twisted to mean that Christ abolished the law of God, so God's great standard of righteousness that represents His character is made a rock of offense, and the Christ of the Old Testament is made to oppose and contradict the Christ of the New, as if Christ were arrayed against Christ.
Reverence and Trust Due God
God alone, as Lord of hosts and Lord God of Israel, is to be set apart as holy and regarded with reverent fear and awe, rather than fearing people, their threats, their alliances, their applause or censure, idolized persons, or human authority. His people are not to share the fear that drives others into confederacies or follow counsel and plans suggested by those who know not the truth, but are to seek His counsel and let His voice govern decisions about His work. Human plans and worldly standards must not replace His authority, and wrong practices that may appear right are deceptions and snares. This means refusing worldly alliances and intimate alliance with unbelievers in councils and decisions that could draw Christians away from God, and, for workers handling religious publications, keeping sacred instruction distinct from ordinary material.
He is the supreme Ruler with rightful dominion over His church, and those who are converted should honor His authority and speak out against evil deeds that bring judgment. He is also His people's confidence, strength, reward, hope, courage, and steadfastness in trial. He knows every necessity and has all power, giving His servants the measure of efficiency their need demands, uniting the majesty of omnipotence with the gentleness and care of a tender shepherd in unfailing love and compassion that never wearies. There need be no fear that He will not fulfill His promises, for He is eternal truth who never changes the covenant He has made with those who love Him, whose promises to His church stand fast forever to make her an eternal excellence and a joy of many generations.
Reverence goes with waiting on and trusting in Him, staying true to the light He has given and holding to the sacred landmarks. It means binding up with the Lord God of hosts, trusting and standing together with Him amid coming troubles, and working together in Christian fellowship without striving for supremacy, for God will then work mightily. Turning to Him fully means coming to the light and giving up interpretations and doctrines that contradict His Word. Such fear is faith in the head, faith in the heart, and faith in the life, with justifying faith running like a thread of gold through all words and deeds. It is practical, working faith that works by love and purifies the soul, believing in Christ with heart and mind and soul and bringing that faith into exercise in everything undertaken, so that through education, discipline, and training every current of the soul runs in helpful, active service to benefit and bless others, which is consecrated service, for religion is of no value unless active, self-denying, and earnest in endeavor, and living faith gives assurance by perfect obedience, for doing His will is how the truth of doctrine is known.
In conflicts ahead and troublous times this trust binds believers to Christ as their sure refuge and sanctuary of protection, while He becomes a stone of stumbling and snare to those who reject Him. When the powers of the enemy muster for battle and men combine to accomplish selfish purposes, this fear of God presses brethren together, binds them up with Christ, humbles their hearts, and ends criticism and variance. It calls for enlarging His work by standing together with none striving for supremacy, with hope and courage, since despondency in His service is sinful and unreasonable, and loyalty to God in the last days rules out binding oneself to human parties. Those who turn from God to their own wisdom and self-exalting plans face judgment, so the call to make Him fear and dread is a warning to choose to belong wholly to the Lord.
Refusing Fear and Confederacy
The world is not the measure for decisions about God's work, and human plans and worldly standards must not take the place of God's authority, for orders come from above, the Lord himself must work, and his voice and instruction must be heard and followed. To set the Lord of hosts apart as holy and make him alone fear and dread means not to walk in the way of this people, not to call a confederacy what the people call a confederacy, and not to fear their fear or be afraid. All speech is to be tested by the law and the testimony, for if it is not according to that word there is no light in it. In the thickening perils of the last days this calls for earnest prayer and for continued interest and sacrifice for institutions founded in sacrifice, with obedience by all workers through whom the world is to be transformed.
No confederacy or intimate alliance is to be entered with unbelievers in councils and decisions, and no counsel or plans suggested by those who do not know the truth or the character of God's work for this time are to be followed. God's institutional work is not to be carried on after worldly wisdom, manners, and customs, for such suggestions weaken his instrumentalities, and to accept them is to set aside the counsel of Christ for the counsel of false gods. Such alliances with worldly people displease the Lord because they draw believers away from loyalty to him.
Nor is a confederacy to be formed among God's own people after the manner and customs of the world, where a set think alike and say amen to every plan, where a chosen circle is gathered who merely agree, where institutions are bound together under men's control, or where the mind or allegiance is yielded to human parties, secret societies, and agreements that draw away from God. In troublous times believers are instead to bind themselves to him and work together in Christian fellowship with none striving for supremacy, and God will then work mightily for them.
Because God is with his people, every evil alliance formed against them shall be broken in pieces and its counsel shall come to nothing and not stand. This holds when Satan works through human agencies to overpower the saints, as Rome once worked to stop Protestantism. The saints can then look calmly on the whole array of evil and meet attack in the spirit in which Jesus met Satan, confident that because Christ lives they shall live also, that evil can advance only in the course Christ permits, and that each step of its advance brings them nearer the great white throne and the successful end of their warfare, until the confederacy of evil is finally destroyed.
When the powers of the enemy muster for battle and men combine to accomplish selfish purposes, fearing God alone presses brethren together, binds them up with Christ, humbles their hearts, and ends criticism and variance. He then becomes a sanctuary of protection to them, while he becomes a stone of stumbling and snare to those who reject him. This same fear requires workers handling religious publications to honor God's holiness by keeping sacred instruction distinct from ordinary material.
It also means refusing to join those who band together to reject the warning message from heaven. This applies when churches reach a certain point in understanding Bible truth and there stop and anchor, saying they have all-sufficient light and need no more and refusing to go forward, and when after the message of warning is given a confederacy is formed that will not receive it, barricading itself for fear that receiving light will let them through a trapdoor into some dangerous pit, though the richest treasures of truth are opened and every mind needs them; by confederating together and setting their stakes fast they are deceived. Fear of God alone likewise forbids fearing arrest, persecution, or human law so as to concede to the enemy or remain neutral on a matter of great consequence. It requires standing in right relation to God's holy law, refusing to resolve that it is right to rest on the first day of the week to avoid arrests, refusing to respect the idol Sunday Sabbath, refusing to lift the spurious Sabbath into the place of the true and genuine Sabbath, refusing to exalt the decisions of the man of sin, and holding the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus from conviction of duty.
Faithful Obedience and Witness
Sanctifying the Lord is the duty of the hour when leaders stand in the way of the work and disharmony and neglect appear among workers, and when a clear testimony must be given concerning the binding claims of God's law. It belongs to the larger word that human association shall be broken in pieces and human counsel shall come to nothing because God is with His people, and it is to be read and heeded by everyone standing in his lot and place. To set Him apart as holy and make Him alone fear and dread means refusing to walk in the way of this people, refusing to fear their fear or be afraid of what they fear.
That reverence requires bearing the clear-cut message of the first, second, and third angels to the world, not in a tame whisper. It refuses to heed counsels or follow plans that would make the special separating truths less prominent. Discernment must be quickened and cleared by the heavenly anointing of the Spirit to discern sacred and eternal realities in their true significance.
His servants are therefore to keep moving forward in faith and courage. Criticism, reproach, censure, and faultfinding must not turn them from their work, weaken courage and hope, or lead them to weaken testimony to please hearers.
For the minister this means setting apart the Lord of hosts as holy in the heart. He is to fear neither people, applause, censure, nor loss of support. He is to preach truth as it is in Jesus, clear and close and practical, not as pleasing men but as pleasing God who tries the hearts, with power and love and a sound mind, feeding the flock faithfully and declaring the whole gospel trust.
To make God fear and dread is to honor and obey Him in practice, not merely to claim belief. Those who claim to believe the truth but do not practice it fail to honor Him. Affliction may come upon them as an appeal and warning to repent and return to God rather than keep walking in their own way.
The call is to come with contrition of soul and train the heart to genuine faith that works by love and purifies the soul and brings rest in the love of Jesus. That genuine faith is peace with God through Christ and is gained by studying the plan of redemption, while remaining in a carnal, faithless position robs oneself daily and robs God of heart service. It is faith in the head, faith in the heart, and faith in the life, running like a thread of gold through all words and deeds, believing in Christ with heart and mind and soul and bringing that faith into exercise in everything undertaken. Through education, discipline, and training every current of the soul is to run in helpful, active service to benefit and bless others, which is consecrated service, for religion is of no value unless active, self-denying, and earnest in endeavor. Such living faith gives assurance by perfect obedience, for doing His will is how the truth of doctrine is known.
Making the Lord holy means humbling the heart low before Him and making Him the only fear and dread. It means fearing to offend the living God, standing only in God while looking unto Jesus, hiding self in Christ, and becoming as humble as a child. One who feels weakness, human inefficiency, and lack of experience and character is to go to the One able to supply all lack, to unlearn wrong lessons and learn anew in the school of Christ, trusting only in Him and making God the only dependence. To such God is merciful and does more abundantly than can be asked, perfecting His strength in weakness, strengthening the weak, reviving the faint, healing the wounded, and giving another chance to perfect Christian character. This reverence puts God above self and above all human authority, so that self-opinion and self-sufficiency which offend God are laid aside, personal judgment is not relied upon, authority over His work is not assumed, control over others' consciences is not taken, and the Holy Spirit is sought in humble dependence to give light and earnestness for ministry.
God's people are not to share the fears and reverence of the wicked but to keep minds fixed on God and stand boldly for truth amid deceptive signs and wonders and spiritualism that threaten to frighten or mislead. They are to honor the Lord alone, trust in Him, and depend on God rather than on men or on idolized and exalted persons. They are to exalt Him as the one feared and dreaded rather than seek the friendship and praise of the world.
This is the experience needed to stand coming tests and trials with strength from above and a spirit of humility, love, and peace. It is courage and steadfastness in trial from fearing and revering the Lord God of hosts above all and holding Him in awe. It means keeping to the truth and depending on the Lord rather than confederating with unbelievers or giving them preference over fellow believers.
In the thickening perils of the last days this calls for earnest prayer and for continued interest and sacrifice for institutions founded in sacrifice, with obedience by all workers through whom the world is to be transformed. It means leaving fearfulness, distrust, and unbelief, trusting that all needed things will be added, going on doing duty with an eye single to the glory of God as in sight of an invisible world, and giving time and talents to the Lord. It refuses independence from God's Spirit, will, providences, and plans, since supposed independence is slavery to a power in rebellion against God.
To set the Lord of hosts apart is to hold Him holy in the heart and revere Him as supreme Ruler with rightful dominion over His church, and to make Him fear and dread is to give Him alone reverent fear and awe, including fear of offending Him. It forbids walking in the way of the people around, calling a confederacy what they call a confederacy, and fearing what they fear or being afraid. To those who thus honor Him He becomes a sanctuary, refuge and protection, but to the disobedient who reject His warnings He becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offense, which is Christ, the sure foundation to those who trust Him. Therefore God alone is to be feared rather than men, their threats, alliances, censure or authority, and His people must not enter into confederacy with unbelievers nor carry on His work by worldly wisdom and standards, but receive orders from above and follow His voice. To make Him fear and dread is to honor and obey Him in practice and not merely claim belief, moving forward in faith and courage, bearing a clear-cut witness to His law and holding to His Word as tested by the law and the testimony.
Words and Historical Setting
To set apart the Lord of hosts is to set him apart as holy, supremely in the heart, and to revere him alone with fear and awe as supreme Ruler with rightful dominion over his church. His people honor his authority and speak out against evil deeds that bring judgment. For the minister this means preaching truth as it is in Jesus, clear and close and practical, not to please men but to please God who tries hearts, with power and love and a sound mind, feeding the flock and declaring the whole gospel.
To let him be fear and dread is to regard him alone with reverent fear and awe rather than people, their fears, their loyalties, applause, censure, loss of support, or human authority. This includes fearing to offend the living God, which leads to humility and keeps from assuming control over others' consciences. This reverence goes with waiting on and trusting in him, staying true to the light given and holding to sacred landmarks.
The command forbids walking in the way of this people, calling a confederacy what the people call a confederacy, and fearing their fear or being afraid of what they fear. It means the world is not the criterion, orders come from above, the Lord must work, and his voice and instruction must be heard and followed. All speech is to be tested by the law and the testimony, for if speech is not according to that word there is no light in it.
Its setting was Judah in apostasy when the sanctuary was closed and the nation was in distress, and it strengthened the faithful remnant who remained loyal to honor God alone rather than be led into idolatry. To those who do so he becomes a sanctuary. It belongs to Isaiah 8:11-20, continuing the declaration of Isaiah 8:9-10 that human association will be broken in pieces and human counsel will come to nothing because God is with his people.
Christ as Sanctuary and Stumbling Stone
To those who set apart the Lord of hosts and make Him alone their fear and dread, He becomes a sanctuary, a refuge and a protection. They are not to share the fear that drives others into confederacies over human alliances and threats, but to revere God alone and trust Him as their sanctuary. When the powers of the enemy muster and men combine for selfish purposes, this fear of God presses brethren together, binds them up with Christ, humbles hearts and ends criticism and variance. Because God is with His people, every evil alliance formed against them shall be broken in pieces and its counsel shall come to nothing and not stand, as when Rome worked through human agencies to stop Protestantism, so the saints can look calmly on the array of evil and meet attack as Jesus met Satan, confident that because Christ lives they shall live, that evil advances only as Christ permits, and that each step brings them nearer the great white throne and the destruction of the confederacy of evil.
To the disobedient who reject His warnings He becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offense to both houses of Israel and a gin and snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that many stumble and fall and are broken and snared and taken. Those who resist His will and refuse His refuge find Him a stumbling stone and snare rather than a sanctuary. The stone is Christ, shown to Isaiah in prophetic vision reaching to the first advent as a sanctuary and sure foundation for those who trust Him. His treatment at His first advent is pictured by the rejected stone that was tested and made the temple cornerstone, placing reverence for God alongside the warning that Christ will be a stumbling stone to many in Israel.
His experience is pictured by the chief cornerstone prepared for Solomon's temple, a stone of unusual size and peculiar shape made ready at the quarry. Rejected by the builders as an annoyance in the way, it lay long exposed to air and sun and storm without crack. Then sought to bear great weight and to resist sun and frost and tempest, it was tried by severe pressure, accepted, and set in exact fit as the sure place on which the safety of the whole building depends. To believers who come to Him He is precious as the living foundation-stone on which they are built up as living stones into a spiritual house, but to the disobedient who stumble at the word He becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
Both ancient and modern Israel have stumbled over that Rock, who is Christ. The offense is His life of self-denial and self-sacrifice, His purity, His exalted standard, and His perfect obedience to the law of God. The great sacrifice to redeem man from Satan's power and the curse of the law is twisted to mean that Christ abolished the law of God, so God's great standard of righteousness that represents His character is made a rock of offense, and the Christ of the Old Testament is made to oppose and contradict the Christ of the New, as if Christ were arrayed against Christ.
Reverence and Trust Due God
God alone, as Lord of hosts and Lord God of Israel, is to be set apart as holy and regarded with reverent fear and awe, rather than fearing people, their threats, their alliances, their applause or censure, idolized persons, or human authority. His people are not to share the fear that drives others into confederacies or follow counsel and plans suggested by those who know not the truth, but are to seek His counsel and let His voice govern decisions about His work. Human plans and worldly standards must not replace His authority, and wrong practices that may appear right are deceptions and snares. This means refusing worldly alliances and intimate alliance with unbelievers in councils and decisions that could draw Christians away from God, and, for workers handling religious publications, keeping sacred instruction distinct from ordinary material.
He is the supreme Ruler with rightful dominion over His church, and those who are converted should honor His authority and speak out against evil deeds that bring judgment. He is also His people's confidence, strength, reward, hope, courage, and steadfastness in trial. He knows every necessity and has all power, giving His servants the measure of efficiency their need demands, uniting the majesty of omnipotence with the gentleness and care of a tender shepherd in unfailing love and compassion that never wearies. There need be no fear that He will not fulfill His promises, for He is eternal truth who never changes the covenant He has made with those who love Him, whose promises to His church stand fast forever to make her an eternal excellence and a joy of many generations.
Reverence goes with waiting on and trusting in Him, staying true to the light He has given and holding to the sacred landmarks. It means binding up with the Lord God of hosts, trusting and standing together with Him amid coming troubles, and working together in Christian fellowship without striving for supremacy, for God will then work mightily. Turning to Him fully means coming to the light and giving up interpretations and doctrines that contradict His Word. Such fear is faith in the head, faith in the heart, and faith in the life, with justifying faith running like a thread of gold through all words and deeds. It is practical, working faith that works by love and purifies the soul, believing in Christ with heart and mind and soul and bringing that faith into exercise in everything undertaken, so that through education, discipline, and training every current of the soul runs in helpful, active service to benefit and bless others, which is consecrated service, for religion is of no value unless active, self-denying, and earnest in endeavor, and living faith gives assurance by perfect obedience, for doing His will is how the truth of doctrine is known.
In conflicts ahead and troublous times this trust binds believers to Christ as their sure refuge and sanctuary of protection, while He becomes a stone of stumbling and snare to those who reject Him. When the powers of the enemy muster for battle and men combine to accomplish selfish purposes, this fear of God presses brethren together, binds them up with Christ, humbles their hearts, and ends criticism and variance. It calls for enlarging His work by standing together with none striving for supremacy, with hope and courage, since despondency in His service is sinful and unreasonable, and loyalty to God in the last days rules out binding oneself to human parties. Those who turn from God to their own wisdom and self-exalting plans face judgment, so the call to make Him fear and dread is a warning to choose to belong wholly to the Lord.
Refusing Fear and Confederacy
The world is not the measure for decisions about God's work, and human plans and worldly standards must not take the place of God's authority, for orders come from above, the Lord himself must work, and his voice and instruction must be heard and followed. To set the Lord of hosts apart as holy and make him alone fear and dread means not to walk in the way of this people, not to call a confederacy what the people call a confederacy, and not to fear their fear or be afraid. All speech is to be tested by the law and the testimony, for if it is not according to that word there is no light in it. In the thickening perils of the last days this calls for earnest prayer and for continued interest and sacrifice for institutions founded in sacrifice, with obedience by all workers through whom the world is to be transformed.
No confederacy or intimate alliance is to be entered with unbelievers in councils and decisions, and no counsel or plans suggested by those who do not know the truth or the character of God's work for this time are to be followed. God's institutional work is not to be carried on after worldly wisdom, manners, and customs, for such suggestions weaken his instrumentalities, and to accept them is to set aside the counsel of Christ for the counsel of false gods. Such alliances with worldly people displease the Lord because they draw believers away from loyalty to him.
Nor is a confederacy to be formed among God's own people after the manner and customs of the world, where a set think alike and say amen to every plan, where a chosen circle is gathered who merely agree, where institutions are bound together under men's control, or where the mind or allegiance is yielded to human parties, secret societies, and agreements that draw away from God. In troublous times believers are instead to bind themselves to him and work together in Christian fellowship with none striving for supremacy, and God will then work mightily for them.
Because God is with his people, every evil alliance formed against them shall be broken in pieces and its counsel shall come to nothing and not stand. This holds when Satan works through human agencies to overpower the saints, as Rome once worked to stop Protestantism. The saints can then look calmly on the whole array of evil and meet attack in the spirit in which Jesus met Satan, confident that because Christ lives they shall live also, that evil can advance only in the course Christ permits, and that each step of its advance brings them nearer the great white throne and the successful end of their warfare, until the confederacy of evil is finally destroyed.
When the powers of the enemy muster for battle and men combine to accomplish selfish purposes, fearing God alone presses brethren together, binds them up with Christ, humbles their hearts, and ends criticism and variance. He then becomes a sanctuary of protection to them, while he becomes a stone of stumbling and snare to those who reject him. This same fear requires workers handling religious publications to honor God's holiness by keeping sacred instruction distinct from ordinary material.
It also means refusing to join those who band together to reject the warning message from heaven. This applies when churches reach a certain point in understanding Bible truth and there stop and anchor, saying they have all-sufficient light and need no more and refusing to go forward, and when after the message of warning is given a confederacy is formed that will not receive it, barricading itself for fear that receiving light will let them through a trapdoor into some dangerous pit, though the richest treasures of truth are opened and every mind needs them; by confederating together and setting their stakes fast they are deceived. Fear of God alone likewise forbids fearing arrest, persecution, or human law so as to concede to the enemy or remain neutral on a matter of great consequence. It requires standing in right relation to God's holy law, refusing to resolve that it is right to rest on the first day of the week to avoid arrests, refusing to respect the idol Sunday Sabbath, refusing to lift the spurious Sabbath into the place of the true and genuine Sabbath, refusing to exalt the decisions of the man of sin, and holding the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus from conviction of duty.
Faithful Obedience and Witness
Sanctifying the Lord is the duty of the hour when leaders stand in the way of the work and disharmony and neglect appear among workers, and when a clear testimony must be given concerning the binding claims of God's law. It belongs to the larger word that human association shall be broken in pieces and human counsel shall come to nothing because God is with His people, and it is to be read and heeded by everyone standing in his lot and place. To set Him apart as holy and make Him alone fear and dread means refusing to walk in the way of this people, refusing to fear their fear or be afraid of what they fear.
That reverence requires bearing the clear-cut message of the first, second, and third angels to the world, not in a tame whisper. It refuses to heed counsels or follow plans that would make the special separating truths less prominent. Discernment must be quickened and cleared by the heavenly anointing of the Spirit to discern sacred and eternal realities in their true significance.
His servants are therefore to keep moving forward in faith and courage. Criticism, reproach, censure, and faultfinding must not turn them from their work, weaken courage and hope, or lead them to weaken testimony to please hearers.
For the minister this means setting apart the Lord of hosts as holy in the heart. He is to fear neither people, applause, censure, nor loss of support. He is to preach truth as it is in Jesus, clear and close and practical, not as pleasing men but as pleasing God who tries the hearts, with power and love and a sound mind, feeding the flock faithfully and declaring the whole gospel trust.
To make God fear and dread is to honor and obey Him in practice, not merely to claim belief. Those who claim to believe the truth but do not practice it fail to honor Him. Affliction may come upon them as an appeal and warning to repent and return to God rather than keep walking in their own way.
The call is to come with contrition of soul and train the heart to genuine faith that works by love and purifies the soul and brings rest in the love of Jesus. That genuine faith is peace with God through Christ and is gained by studying the plan of redemption, while remaining in a carnal, faithless position robs oneself daily and robs God of heart service. It is faith in the head, faith in the heart, and faith in the life, running like a thread of gold through all words and deeds, believing in Christ with heart and mind and soul and bringing that faith into exercise in everything undertaken. Through education, discipline, and training every current of the soul is to run in helpful, active service to benefit and bless others, which is consecrated service, for religion is of no value unless active, self-denying, and earnest in endeavor. Such living faith gives assurance by perfect obedience, for doing His will is how the truth of doctrine is known.
Making the Lord holy means humbling the heart low before Him and making Him the only fear and dread. It means fearing to offend the living God, standing only in God while looking unto Jesus, hiding self in Christ, and becoming as humble as a child. One who feels weakness, human inefficiency, and lack of experience and character is to go to the One able to supply all lack, to unlearn wrong lessons and learn anew in the school of Christ, trusting only in Him and making God the only dependence. To such God is merciful and does more abundantly than can be asked, perfecting His strength in weakness, strengthening the weak, reviving the faint, healing the wounded, and giving another chance to perfect Christian character. This reverence puts God above self and above all human authority, so that self-opinion and self-sufficiency which offend God are laid aside, personal judgment is not relied upon, authority over His work is not assumed, control over others' consciences is not taken, and the Holy Spirit is sought in humble dependence to give light and earnestness for ministry.
God's people are not to share the fears and reverence of the wicked but to keep minds fixed on God and stand boldly for truth amid deceptive signs and wonders and spiritualism that threaten to frighten or mislead. They are to honor the Lord alone, trust in Him, and depend on God rather than on men or on idolized and exalted persons. They are to exalt Him as the one feared and dreaded rather than seek the friendship and praise of the world.
This is the experience needed to stand coming tests and trials with strength from above and a spirit of humility, love, and peace. It is courage and steadfastness in trial from fearing and revering the Lord God of hosts above all and holding Him in awe. It means keeping to the truth and depending on the Lord rather than confederating with unbelievers or giving them preference over fellow believers.
In the thickening perils of the last days this calls for earnest prayer and for continued interest and sacrifice for institutions founded in sacrifice, with obedience by all workers through whom the world is to be transformed. It means leaving fearfulness, distrust, and unbelief, trusting that all needed things will be added, going on doing duty with an eye single to the glory of God as in sight of an invisible world, and giving time and talents to the Lord. It refuses independence from God's Spirit, will, providences, and plans, since supposed independence is slavery to a power in rebellion against God.