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9:1

@@@^The answer to all these questions is simply this: There must be an awakening to spiritual poverty and earnestness in searching Truth. There must be a stop to sin, there must be a sinless place and people — an ark of safety, so to speak, if we are ever to be saved from the plagues. “Achans,” too, must be put away before Israel can triumph and take the land. God in His wisdom knows that it is better to destroy comparatively few enemies of Truth, than to lose the whole world. All the stumbling blocks must be removed.

14:3

@@@^There is no time to lose. The day is upon us when men shall see themselves as they actually are. True, those who do not now cast aside their idols, will do so later, but as we said before, it will then be too late to profit them. Now is the time to turn from men, and to make our own decisions in accordance with the promise that to any God-trusting and Truth-searching one God will give His Spirit to lead him into all Truth.

4:1

@@@^@0@9Verses 3, 4 — “And shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth: with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.”@7@^These verses, I am sure, need no comment save to mention that “the rod of His mouth” and “the breath of His lips” must mean God’s Word, His Truth. This very Truth to which we are listening this afternoon will, therefore, on the one hand @9slay@7 those who reject It together with those who are disobedient to It, but on the other hand @9save@7 those who give heed to It, and who comply with Its requirements. The one consequence is as natural as it the other. For example, did not the preaching of the gospel of Christ save the Apostles, but at the same time cause Judas to commit suicide? And did it not save the disciples but destroy all the unbelieving of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.?

16:4

@@@^Very obviously, at the time this pronouncement is made, a deep-rooted reformation is taking place among God’s Truth-seeking people. They recognize the fact that they are approaching the time of trouble, and they are reassured that their stability and strength of salvation are to be found in wisdom and knowledge, in the Spirit and in the Truth for the day. The fear of the Lord is to be their greatest treasure.

24:2

@@@^@0@9Verses 5, 6 — “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams [of truth] in the desert.”@7@^When these things take place, then it will be just as natural for the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to leap, and the dumb to sing, yes, as natural as blossoms are followed with fruit. God’s Truth for this time is to spread everywhere and reap a great harvest of souls.

25:2

@@@^@0@9Verse 7 — “And the parched ground [the places which are now entirely devoid of Truth] shall become a pool, and the thirsty land [the land that thirsts for God’s Truth] springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.”@7@^There shall be fruitage, you see, even where the dragons lie.

20:2

@@@^We are now asked to choose either to stand on God’s side or on the side of His adversaries (those whom we fear); those who are doing everything to close our eyes to God’s Truth for this time — either to choose God, His Spirit and His revealed Truth, or to choose men, desolation and destruction, the famine and the sword.

28:2

@@@^@0@9Verses 13, 14 — “Behold, My servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.”@7@^These verses, as you know, have long been applied to the Lord. He nevertheless, does not do all these things personally, but He does them through His messengers. Now note, in verse 13 we are told that the Lord is greatly exalted, whereas in verse 14 we are told His visage was marred and His form more than the sons of men. “He hath no form nor comeliness;...no beauty that we should desire Him.” Isa. 53:2. Why? — The only answer that can be given to the question, is this: God knows that the people’s sinful nature urges them to make idols of men. They easily fall for men who can put forth a good front. They act as though they were baptized in the names of these modern Pauls and Apolloes. They are followers of pride and pomp rather than followers of God and His progressive Truth. To break them away from this folly, God sends His Truth through unsuspected ones. Thus contrary to their liking and expectation it is written that the Lord had no form nor comeliness; but in spite of it, He shall “be exalted and extolled, and be very high.”

29:1

@@@^@0@9Verse 15 — “So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.”@7@^He is to sprinkle (cleanse — Ezek. 36:25) many nations. Those who will not turn away from following the pride of man will be led to fall in the ditch, so to speak. Every vain person shall drop out through the “sieve of vanity,” but the followers of Truth and righteousness shall live forever. None of these things have ever been told to any. It is, therefore, very important to stop, watch, and listen, to diligently follow Truth Itself. Know that the vain make display of themselves, of their achievements, and especially of their religion. Know that they do this in order to draw the hearts of their audiences to @9themselves@7, to get a following, to exert their influence, to put something over. The Pharisees in Christ’s day were very proficient in this heart-stealing profession. They prayed on the corners of the streets to be seen by men, and thus they deceived them beyond reclamation.

4:4

@@@^Inspiration makes clear that allegorically Hagar and her son, Ishmael, represent the church in the Old Testament period, and that Sarah and her son, Isaac, represent the church in the New Testament period. The membership of the Old Testament church was indeed of the flesh, for it was made up of whosoever was born from the stock of Jacob; but the members of the New Testament church, especially the ones here projected, are persons who have by the Spirit of Truth been converted to Christ. And as it was impossible for Isaac to have been born by the will of the flesh, just so impossible it is for these children of the Spirit of Truth to be born by the will of men.

13:2

@@@^We have now learned that Abraham’s two wives and two sons are an allegorical forecast of the Old and New Testament churches; that Ishmael’s arrival prefigured fleshly Israel and that Isaac’s arrival prefigured spiritual Israel, the Christians; that Ishmael persecuting Isaac was a forecast of the Jews persecuting the Christians; that Abraham’s act of disinheriting and sending Hagar and her son away from home, foreshadowed God’s act of putting away and disinheriting fleshly Israel — that only those who are “born again,” born of the Spirit, will inherit the Kingdom; that Isaac, who came into this world only by the power of God, foreshadowed the Christian church, but especially the soon-coming Kingdom church in which there is to be no Ishmaelite — no person brought in by the will of the flesh — no “tares,” no “bad fish,” no “goats” — only saints, only “such as should be saved,” and no one can be “such as should be saved” if he does not believe what the Word says, if he does not take his stand on Truth’s side. Only they that hunger for Truth and righteousness will be filled and become His precious jewels, fit to be a part of this Lord’s Jewel building. “And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.” Mal. 3:17, 18. It is a terrible thing to disbelieve the Word of God, or to be indifferent, indecisive, and inactive.

16:2

@@@^@0@9Isa. 60:1 — “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”@7@^Who can truthfully say that our light is not come? that our message is not timely Truth? None who are in contact with It, I am sure. Inspiration is, therefore, inviting God’s people, the Denomination, along with us, to arise and shine. The word “shine” is what we must study next that we may know what is required of us.

24:3

@@@^The reason given for the Spirit’s power upon Him is that the Lord God had anointed Him to preach good tidings unto the meek, implying that if the Lord had not anointed Him to preach, the Spirit of the Lord would not have been on Him. Moreover, He was anointed to preach to the meek, to those who are not self-sufficient, not high-minded, but humble and teachable; the other class could not be taught. He was to comfort all that mourn, to bind the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives (not to free them immediately). “The acceptable year of the Lord” is, of course, the time in which the scripture is fulfilled, the time it is unsealed and proclaimed. Those who give no heed to it are to be swept away in the “day of vengeance.” These were the good tidings for which Jesus was anointed. Unbelief and indifference in revealed Truth is an insult to God and a sin against the Holy Ghost Who leads into all Truth.

22:2

@@@^Now that you plainly see the signs and the time of our redemption and of the day of God’s vengeance against unrepented sinners fast approaching, you are urged to make ready, to sigh and cry against the abominations, to receive the mark of deliverance, to be among the firstfruits. Now you can happily and understandingly seek the Kingdom of Heaven and Its righteousness, and assuredly know that the material things of life should not predominate over the spiritual, that they shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:25- 34). Heaven, therefore, expects you without delay to definitely and openly take your stand on the side of Truth. Now that the year of His redeemed is come, that the signs of the day of vengeance are here, now is the opportune moment to make your decision. You cannot afford to procrastinate for says the Spirit of all Truth: “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day [not yesterday, not the day of Miller or of White]; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; while it is said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that @9believed not@7? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Heb. 3:7-19.

22:3

@@@^It is plainly seen that the preaching of eternal suffering in hell fire rather than eternal death, is prompted by unscrupulous so-called soul winners endeavoring to drive their audiences into church by fright. But if they knew that only the born-again through the love of the Truth are given the right to enter into the Holy City, if they knew that those who must be frightened in are excluded from it, if they knew that anything which maketh a lie is also not given the right to enter therein, — if they wholeheartedly knew all these, they would perhaps stop preaching eternal life in hell fire, and begin to preach eternal love of the Truth. Let us now close our study by reading the Lord’s final plea:

3:3

@@@^Since Jacob himself was dead long before Isaiah the prophet wrote, the truth clearly stands out that the Spirit of God in this scripture speaks, not personally to Jacob himself, but to his descendants, to those to whom this Truth is made known, and who now bear the responsibility to broadcast It far and wide; plainly, then, the people in whom the Lord is to be glorified, and who again bring Jacob to Him (Isa. 49:3, 5) are themselves, too, to be made known internationally. They are those who finish the gospel work — the very last. To them the Lord gives a mouth as sharp as a sword.

18:5

@@@^There is but one sensible conclusion that you can come to, and that is to whole-heartedly accept and to comply with all the prophets have written. Let no one divert your attention from this Truth.

22:2

@@@^@0@9Verse 7 — “For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel.”@7@^The “remnant” are those who survive the “Judgment in the house of God.” God’s people now, while dwelling among the chief of the nations, are urged to proclaim this good tiding in their midst with singing, gladness, and praise, saying, “O Lord, save Thy people.” This Truth is now the very present Truth, and It is to be proclaimed and heeded. To work and pray to this end, is the message of the hour.

23:2

@@@^@0@9Verse 10 — “Hear the Word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.”@7@^God is speaking and who dare not take His Word to heart? Who dare be indifferent and keep silent? In order for the nations to be able to say, “He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him,” they must be nations that believe, nations that understand these prophecies and promises. They are to do what we are doing. But since there is no nation doing this at the present time, and since we are the only ones that are engaged in this work, the truth becomes evident that our message is to awaken nations to the fact that we, the last descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel, are called forth to declare this Truth not only to all our brethren, but even to the nations. Then the nations are to re-broadcast It to other nations, so declares the Scriptures. They are to proclaim that God’s people are to be gathered, and kept, too.

2:3

@@@^Let us pray that we might understand Christ’s teachings of the unknown through the known — the heavenly things as revealed through the earthly; that we emulate Christ’s way of teaching, illustrating Divine truths by earthly objects; pray that we fully benefit by Christ’s parables — the outstanding links in the chain of Truth that unites earth with heaven.