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15:2

@@@^@0@9Ezek. 36:20-24 — “And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned My holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of His land. But I had pity for Mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify My great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.”@7@^Plainly, the Word declares that the sanctuary is to be cleansed, that the land also is to be reclaimed, and the Kingdom restored, not by reason of the people’s goodness, but for God’s name’s sake, for His own goodness sake. The heathen, too, will know what God has done for His people, for the Scriptures show that all this shall take place right before their eyes. This same cleansing Christ describes thus:

20:3

@@@^@0@9Verse 17 — “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”@7@^Here, you see, the remnant — those who are left after the others are swallowed by the earth, so to speak — keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus Christ. This remnant, or sect, that keeps the commandments of God, therefore, is the only one that Inspiration recommends, the only one that is worth joining, the only one that can profit any one. It alone possesses the power to escape any and all of the calamities that are now brewing throughout the world. It is the only sect that finds favor with God. No other would do, for no other could profit you.

23:1

@@@^Since “The Revelation,” the book that speaks to the people of God at this time, recommends the sect that keeps the commandments and that has the gift of prophecy, you cannot wisely connect yourself with any other sect. And since God so declares, it must be that there is but one such people at this particular time who have the living testimony of Jesus Christ, the Gift of the Spirit of Prophecy. Moreover, for God to place the Gift with more than one people, would be for Him to cause confusion and disaster to His own work, to thwart His own purpose. Still further, if more than one has the Gift, then they all would necessarily have to agree as one. But since there are no two sects that agree with each other, the truth that there is but one sect that has the Gift is an absolute reality. And while you may choose to keep the Sabbath commandment, you cannot inspire yourself with the Spirit of Prophecy — this Gift is bestowed upon the remnant by God Himself.

6:2

@@@^@0@9Num. 23:18, 19 — “And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”@7@^God’s Righteousness, you see, is His integrity, His sure promises, His might to perform. He guarantees His promises; they never fail. To have the Righteousness of the Lord, therefore, is to have His integrity and faithfulness, and these we can never have so long as we mistrust Him. Never so long as we doubt His Word, for to doubt is nothing short of calling Him a liar! To doubt is the greatest offense one can commit! No one can doubt God and still receive His blessings and promises. To have the Righteousness of the Lord, therefore, is to implicitly trust Him without reservation. And where does He expect us to begin? — He wants us to begin with the thing that troubles us most — the temporal things of tomorrow. He wants us to learn that we cannot serve self and God, too:

8:1

@@@^@0@9Matt. 6:27-34 — “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”@7@^Take no thought for the morrow, for it will take care of itself — why cross bridges before you come to them? Why worry how you are to fill up your stomachs and with what you are to cover your bodies tomorrow if they are cared for this day? Why worry about your own needs, why not worry how to advance the Kingdom of God? Putting in overtime to make tents or cobble shoes for a living is all right if you do not say, “I will do this and the other and get money to buy and build this or that.” You should instead say, “If God permits, I will do this or that, so that I may get here or get there, do this and the other for the advancement of His cause.” Whatever the aim behind your act it must be for the advancement of His Kingdom.

11:1

@@@^No, there is neither beast nor man that can take your life or cheat you of promotion if you do God’s bidding, if you know that He Who keepeth Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers (Ps. 121:3, 4); that He knows all about you, my friends, every moment of the day and of the night; that He takes notice even of the hairs that fall from your heads; that whatever befalls you is but God’s own will for your own good. I say, if you know and believe that He is God and the Keeper of your bodies and souls, then regardless what befalls you, you will be happy in it and give God the credit for it, not murmuring, but glorying even in your trials and afflictions.

25:5

@@@^Laban was well pleased with the contract and Jacob went to work. God blessed Jacob’s labors in spite of natural impossibility, and within six years he became rich! Why? — Because Jacob served God wholeheartedly, and implicitly trusted in Him for his living. He wanted nothing but what God would let him have. He knew that so long as he worked for the Lord, the Lord would leave him neither hungry nor naked. He knew that if God so clothed the grass of the field, He would clothe and feed him in His vineyard.

26:2

@@@^@0@9Gen. 31:13 — “I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto Me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.”@7@^From this record, you see, Jacob was faithful at his post of duty, and always mindful of God’s command. Are we like Jacob? or are we like Judas Iscariot? Jacob, now you know, took perfect care of Laban’s business, and followed God’s direction all the way. But Judas Iscariot took perfect care of his own selfish interest at the expense of God’s Gift, and rather than following the Lord’s directions, he followed his own. Now, though, compare Jacob’s end with that of Judas’. One’s work ended in glory and the other’s work ended in shame and disaster.

27:2

@@@^I have seen a number of individuals swear by heaven and earth that God has led them here or there, into this or into the other. But when things did no please them, then they packed away swearing just as hard that God had not led them into the thing! And again swear just as hard as before that God is taking them out of it, and into something better! They again felt just as positive that God was leading in their move, though it was the opposite of what they thought He had led them in before!

28:2

@@@^Let me now tell you that these indications in themselves are but presumption of the highest form, hallucination and gambling, not God’s signs at all. Moreover, anyone’s plans which are based on purely selfish interests, based purely on where and how one may better his private profit-making projects while he professes to be a Christian, — I tell you that all these are schemes, not God’s plans at all, regardless how the way opens, or what happens. The fact is that God is never given the opportunity to direct in these things, for to give Him the opportunity, He says, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

10:2

@@@^“’The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.’ ‘The field,’ Christ said, ‘is the world.’ But we must understand this as signifying the church of Christ in the world. The parable is a description of that which pertains to the kingdom of God, His work for the salvation of men, and this work is accomplished through the church.... The good seed represents those who are born of the word of God, the truth. The tares represent a class who are the fruit or embodiment of error, of false principles. ‘The enemy that sowed them is the devil.’ Neither God nor His angels ever sowed a seed that would produce a tare. The tares are always sown by Satan, the enemy of God and man.”

18:2

@@@^@0@9Deut. 10:12, 13, 19, 20 — “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?... Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave, and swear by His name.”@7@8

21:1

@@@^@0@9Deut. 23:19-23 — “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury: unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.@7@^“When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee. But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee. That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the Lord thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.”

24:1

@@@^@0@91 John 1:4-6 — “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”@7@8@0@9James 2:19, 20 — “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”@7@^Your obeying “all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments” of the moral law of Moses, you see, is your evidence that you have been born again, that you have been endowed with power from above, that you are enabled to choose the good and to refuse the evil, that you are the children of God. Keeping the commandments and the statutes in the Lord, then is the light and shield of your life. It is the outward sign that by the life of Christ you have overcome the Enemy of your soul and body. This system of worship, therefore, is truly the Righteousness by faith that brings the righteousness of Christ in the people of God. Let us now with ears wide open hear the crier’s bell:

2:2

@@@^“The great leaders of religious thought in this generation sound the praises and build the monuments of those who planted the seed of truth centuries ago. Do not many turn from this work to trample down the growth springing from the same seed today? The old cry is repeated, ‘We @9know@7 that God spake unto Moses; as for this fellow [Christ in the messenger He sends], we know not from whence he is.’ As in earlier ages, the special truths for this time are found, not with the ecclesiastical authorities, but with men and women who are not too learned or too wise to believe the word of God. ‘For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.’”

2:3

@@@^This reading commands to pray for those who are considered wise, for today as in times past the so-called great leaders of religion are on the one hand sounding praises, building, as it were, monuments to God’s servants of centuries before, while on the other hand trampling down God’s messengers of their own day! They, too, in effect say “We know that God spoke unto Moses; as for this fellow we know not from whence He is.” We should pray that they realize their mistake of measuring the work of God by the yardstick of man. And pray, too, that we ourselves not fall unto such a practice.

3:3

@@@^@0@9Rom. 11:6 — “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”@7@^We are called into the election of God, says the scripture, not because of any good works of our own, but through God’s grace. We are, therefore, invited to become Christians, the children of God, not because we deserve to be adopted by Him, but because of His favor toward us. Indeed, there is no other way by which we can be saved, for we all have sinned and, therefore, how can we be saved except He, through His grace, forgive us our sins and start us out anew? This is what is called a new birth, the sum of which is that we deserve no credit for coming into the household of God. The credit is His.

5:1

@@@^In Abraham’s time, too, only about 400 years after the flood the world had sunk deep in idol worship, and God commanded Abraham to get out of his father’s house, out of his idolatrous country, and to go to another land, a land that was to be for his own and for God’s people only. And as any, good or bad, who joined Abraham and his God were as freely permitted to enter into the Promised Land as were the antediluvians permitted to enter the ark, they too, therefore, were given “righteousness by grace”; that is, they were privileged to take their stand for God with Abraham, and to share the blessings, but not because of any good works of theirs. Having endured to the end, Abraham, whose faith failed not, became the father of all who through “righteousness by grace” attain “righteousness by faith.” Hence you see that “righteousness by grace” starts us out into “righteousness by faith,” the reward of which is, “the righteousness of Christ.”

22:2

@@@^“There is yet much precious truth to be revealed to the people in this time of peril and darkness, but it is Satan’s determined purpose to prevent the light of truth from shining into the hearts of men. If we would have the light that has been provided for us, we should show our desire for it by diligently searching the word of God. Precious truths that have long been in obscurity are to be revealed in a light that will make manifest their sacred worth; for God will glorify His word, that it may appear in a light in which we have never before beheld it. But those who profess to love the truth must put to the stretch their powers, that they may comprehend the deep things of the word, that God may be glorified and His people may be blessed and enlightened. With humble hearts, subdued by the grace of God, you should come to the task of searching the Scriptures, prepared to accept every ray of divine light, and to walk in the way of holiness.” — @9Id.@7 pg. 25.

28:1

@@@^In the verses which we read a moment ago, we are told that Abraham was to become a great and mighty nation because he would command his children and his household after God, to keep the way of the Lord, to do “justice and judgment.” God recognized that Abraham’s home was to be a model home school, and thus this Patriarch of the Ages became a “friend of God,” and the “father of the faithful.” God, you see, honors parents who run their homes right, who command their households after Him.