1st Angel's Study Book

1st ANGEL'S MESSAGE

STUDIES BY BR. JOHN THIEL Compiled by Sr Raelene Lehmann Australian Mission Field International Missionary Society PO Box 1262 MIDLAND WA 6936

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Contents INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3 1 ANGELS PREACHING TO EARTH'S INHABITANTS.......................................................4 2 THE GODHEAD..................................................................................................................12 3 GOD THE FATHER..............................................................................................................18 4 GOD'S HOLINESS...............................................................................................................24 5 GOD'S GRACE.....................................................................................................................31 6 GOD THE SON.....................................................................................................................39 7 THE HOLY SPIRIT..............................................................................................................44 8 THE FALL OF MAN............................................................................................................51 9 CHRIST'S ATONEMENT.....................................................................................................58 10 JESUS THE MAN...............................................................................................................64 11 THE RANSOM...................................................................................................................69 12 THE OLD AND NEW COVENANT..................................................................................78 13 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES..............................................................................................83 14 THE SANCTUARY............................................................................................................86 15 THE MARRIAGE SUPPER...............................................................................................95 16 THE RESURRECTION....................................................................................................102 17 DISCIPLESHIP.................................................................................................................108 18 PRAYER LIFE..................................................................................................................113 19 HOW TO STUDY THE WORD OF GOD........................................................................119 20 THE APPRENTICESHIP OF REPENTANCE.................................................................124 21 THE APPRENTICESHIP OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ..........................................129 22 THE APPRENTICESHIP OF SANCTIFICATION..........................................................132 JESUS THE SOURCE OF SANCTIFICATION...............................................................134 23 GOD'S PERFECT AND PERMISSIVE WILL.................................................................137 24 VICTORY IN THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH..............143 25 144,000:WHO ARE THEY?.............................................................................................147 26 THE HOUR OF GOD'S JUDGMENT..............................................................................154 27 THE BOOKS OF HEAVEN..............................................................................................163 28 THE CLOSE OF PROBATION........................................................................................168 29 THE GREAT COMMISSION ..........................................................................................173

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INTRODUCTION This study book has been compiled to use in personal missionary work. It is based on personal notes taken while attending a series of studies given by Br John Thiel. The life-changing work of the Holy Spirit is evidenced in my life and the lives of those who have gathered precious jewels from the Word of Life as a result of these studies and it is my prayer that those who choose to take up the privilege of becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ will also gain the blessing of sharing this important message with all who have a hunger for the Word of God. “I have had an experience in the first, second, and third angels' messages. The angels are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming to the world a message of warning, and having a direct bearing upon the people living in the last days of this earth's history. No one hears the voice of these angels, for they are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven. Men and women, enlightened by the Spirit of God and sanctified through the truth, proclaim the three messages in their order. I have acted a part in this solemn work. Nearly all my Christian experience is interwoven with it. There are those now living who have an experience similar to my own. They have recognized the truth unfolding for this time; they have kept in step with the great Leader, the Captain of the Lord's host. In the proclamation of the messages, every specification of prophecy has been fulfilled. Those who were privileged to act a part in proclaiming these messages have gained an experience which is of the highest value to them; and now when we are amid the perils of these last days, when voices will be heard on every side saying, "Here is Christ," "Here is truth," while the burden of many is to unsettle the foundation of our faith which has led us from the churches and from the world to stand as a peculiar people in the world, like John our testimony will be borne: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; . . . that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us" (1 John 1:1-3). I testify the things which I have seen, the things which I have heard, the things which my hands have handled of the Word of life. And this testimony I know to be of the Father and the Son. We have seen and do testify that the power of the Holy Ghost has accompanied the presentation of the truth, warning with pen and voice, and giving the messages in their order. To deny this work would be to deny the Holy Ghost, and would place us in that company who have departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits.” {2SM 387.1 - 388.2} Sr Raelene Lehmann Page 3 of 177

1 ANGELS PREACHING TO EARTH'S INHABITANTS When God’s mode of communication is practically and intelligently understood, the angels of Revelation 14 & 18 will become clearly identifiable as visible movements of people who have sounded and heeded the messages given for their time. We now begin our study of the first angel’s message with the proclamation of all three angels’ messages exactly as they are recorded here in Revelation 14:6 onward. Revelation 14:6 Here is an angel preaching the everlasting gospel to the inhabitants of earth and this is again repeated in verse 8 and 9. Revelation 14:8 A second angel is proclaiming something to earth’s inhabitants. Revelation 14:9 The second angel is followed by a third angel. Revelation 18:1 The earth was lighted with the glory of this angel. Revelation 18:2 In the above scriptures we have repeated statements of angels proclaiming to earth’s inhabitants. Have you ever seen angels flying in the heavens and preaching to the earth for everybody to hear? It is now our purpose to clarify how it is that angles proclaim messages to humanity and what that would actually mean to the sense of human beings. And what kind of an experience would we make at the hand of the angels as they are recorded here in Revelation 14. The next three studies that are to follow are to do with the worship of God and the understanding of God. It is through understanding of the three persons of the Godhead that we come to know God. Reading John chapter 17 we discover how important it is to really know God. John 17:3 One of the conditions to eternal life is that we need to know God.

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1 Timothy 6:16 Romans the above text we are presented with an apparent difficulty – God dwells in a light which no man can approach to and that no man hath seen nor can see. If human beings are unable to approach or see God, how then may we come to know him so that we may have eternal life? Job 11:7-9 “Canst thou by searching find out God?” from our own human efforts to search out God the scripture says, “what canst thou know?” Isaiah 55:8, 9 Even God’s ways and thoughts are foreign to us and yet we are told in the scriptures “This is life eternal that we might know him. In view of all these obstacles, it appears that we need someone to come down and communicate about God to us. The question is, will God come down and tell us about Himself? John 1:18 Jesus, God’s only begotten Son is the one who comes to us and declares something about the Father. No man can do it but the only begotten Son. John 5:31,32 Jesus doesn’t speak of Himself for it is another that bears witness of Him. But Jesus does bear witness of the Father. John 16:13 Each Person of the Godhead will not declare anything about Himself – He always waits for the other person of the Godhead to bear witness. So there is the Son who speaks of the Father, the Holy Spirit which speaks of Jesus and neither of the three of them speak about themselves. This is the attitude of God. John 7:18 What does the Bible say about those who bear testimony of themselves? “He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory.” For this reason God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit cannot bear testimony of themselves. Coming from the understanding then that the Father bears witness of the Son, the Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit of the Son, who do they speak to in order to communicate the information to man? Let us return to our question as to where the angels come into the picture and how they communicate to us. Revelation 1:1,2 Here John is spoken of as bearing record of the word of God and of the Page 5 of 177

testimony of Jesus; of all things that he saw, not of himself, but the things that were shown him. The Revelation of Jesus was sent and signified to John by the angel and then John bare record of what he was shown by the angel. Revelation 22:16 The angels are commissioned to communicate from God, God is the one who has sent them. Jesus speaks of the Father, the Holy Spirit speaks of the other two, but never of Himself and who does He communicate it to? To the angel who in turn passes it on to John, or in Daniel 8, the angel passes it on to Daniel. In other words the angels communicate it to men on earth. Daniel 8:15,16 We know that the angel Gabriel communicated the vision to Daniel just as the angel revealed the visions of Revelation to John. John and Daniel were human beings who received the illumination from the angels and here I would also draw our attention to Hebrews chapter 1, that it is actually the angels' work to minister and communicate the knowledge of God to man. Hebrews 1:7,13,14 Very clearly the Bible expresses to us that angels are the ministers to human beings so that if we are to come to know God and have eternal life, this knowledge must be communicated to man by the angels. Desire of Ages p21.1 The angels of glory find their joy in giving,--giving love and tireless watchcare to souls that are fallen and unholy. Heavenly beings woo the hearts of men; they bring to this dark world light from the courts above; by gentle and patient ministry they move upon the human spirit, to bring the lost into a fellowship with Christ which is even closer than they themselves can know. {DA 21.1} This is a profound statement – a declaration of God’s amazing way of communicating to us as human beings – the angels are sent to be ministering spirits unto us and they are the ones that are wooing the hearts of men by bringing into this dark world light from the courts above. By their gentle, patient ministry to us they will provide for us a relationship with Christ which is even closer than the angel themselves can know. It is amazing to consider the attitude of these heavenly ministers. In our appreciation of the three angels’ messages we discover that the angels communicate to man the particular messages of God. In Amos 3:7 we discover that the human race is then illuminated by the men whom the angles have communicated with.

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Amos 3:7 All the writers of the Bible were moved upon by the Spirit of Prophesy. They were prophets who communicated to man what God had revealed to them. How may we come to know God then? How can we come to know salvation? Romans 10:14,17 The word of God is chronicled at the hand of the prophets who receive it from angels. The writings are then taken up by the preachers who communicate it to the human populous. The ministry of men in this respect is the same as that of angels. Men are messengers of God’s word. Who are the three angels of Revelation 14 flying through the heavens and declaring messages to the earth’s inhabitants? They are in fact movements of people who have received the messages sent from God. Revelation 1:10-13 John was told to write down the things that he had seen and then to send these messages to the 7 churches. Revelation 1:16,20 John was to write to the seven churches and each of the seven churches had an angel (minister) that he was writing to – remember what the word angel means – angelos – messenger Revelation 2:1 John proceeds to write the message he had been given to the angel of the church of Ephesus and then next to the angel of the church of Smyrna and then to the angel of the church of Pergamos and so on. Who are these angels of the churches that John is writing to? (Remember angelos means messenger.) Mal 2:7 The priests and the ministry are the messengers of the Lord of hosts. John writes down what he has received at the hands of the angel and sends these messages to priests (ministers) of the seven churches. To read further about this chain of communication Zechariah 4:1-4 In Revelation 1:12 we read that Jesus was moving amongst the seven golden candlesticks representing the seven churches. Page 7 of 177

In Zechariah 4:3 we read about two olive trees which are the oil that keep the seven candlesticks alight. In the following scriptures, the angel reveals the meaning of the vision to the prophet Zechariah. Zechariah 4:5, 11-14 Here it is – here is the explanation. The two olive trees represent the two holy ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. We’ve just been reading how God does not speak of Himself, it is Jesus that speaks of Him, it is the Holy Spirit that speaks of Jesus. And who do they speak to? The two cherubim that stand at either side of the throne of God. The two cherubim standing in God’s holy presence hear and communicate the messages (the oil) sent from God down the communication channel. In Revelation 11:3, 4 we find a direct reference to Zechariah and the two olive trees. The two olives trees (cherubim) – communicating the oil (word) from God = the Old and the New Testament. This is fully explained in GC 267 Concerning the two witnesses the prophet declares further: "These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth." "Thy word," said the psalmist, "is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Revelation 11:4; Psalm 119:105. The two witnesses represent the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. Both are important testimonies to the origin and perpetuity of the law of God. Both are witnesses also to the plan of salvation. The types, sacrifices, and prophecies of the Old Testament point forward to a Saviour to come. The Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament tell of a Saviour who has come in the exact manner foretold by type and prophecy. {GC 267.1} So as we couple all these statements together we notice that the two olive trees are the two anointed ones that stand in the presence of the Lord. The two olive trees communicate the oil (Holy Spirit) to the prophets who then wrote what they saw in the Old and New Testaments. The preachers then pick up the writings of the prophets and proclaim it to the people. Here is revealed God’s communicating link to humanity. One more statement in TM 510

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Romans the two olive trees, the golden oil was emptied through golden pipes into the bowl of the candlestick and thence into the golden lamp that gave light to the sanctuary. So from the holy ones that stand in God's presence His Spirit is imparted to human instrumentalities that are consecrated to His service. The mission of the two anointed ones is to communicate light and power to God's people. It is to receive blessing for us that they stand in God's presence. As the olive trees empty themselves into the golden pipes, so the heavenly messengers seek to communicate all that they receive from God. The whole heavenly treasure awaits our demand and reception; and as we receive the blessing, we in our turn are to impart it. Thus it is that the holy lamps are fed, and the church becomes a light bearer in the world. {TM 510.1} This is the work that the Lord would have every soul prepared to do at this time. Here is the beautiful summary of everything we have just been highlighting that comes from Zechariah 4:1-4 6T 456 One part of the ministry of heavenly angels is to visit our world and oversee the work of the Lord in the hands of His stewards. In every time of necessity they minister to those who as co-workers with God are striving to carry forward His work in the earth. These heavenly intelligences are represented as desiring to look into the plan of redemption, and they rejoice whenever any part of God's work prospers. {6T 456.1} Angels are interested in the spiritual welfare of all who are seeking to restore God's moral image in man; and the earthly family are to connect with the heavenly family in binding up the wounds and bruises that sin has made. Isn’t that wonderful, the heavenly family binding up with the earthly family to do the work upon other human beings? Angelic agencies, though invisible, are co-operating with visible human agencies, forming a relief association with men. Can we see, to answer to our quest, as to who are the angels that are proclaiming? They are the invisible angels who work through visible human angels forming a relief association.

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The very angels who, when Satan was seeking the supremacy, fought the battle in the heavenly courts and triumphed on the side of God, the very angels who shouted for joy over the creation of our world and its sinless inhabitants, the angels who witnessed the fall of man and his expulsion from his Eden home - these very heavenly messengers are most intensely interested to work in union with the fallen, redeemed race for the salvation of human beings perishing in their sins. {6T 456.2} Human agencies are the hands of heavenly instrumentalities, for heavenly angels employ human hands in practical ministry. What is the experience of human beings on earth who receive the three angels messages? They are human agencies but they are in touch with heavenly agencies and the two work together for the benefit of man. Human agencies as hand helpers are to work out the knowledge and use the facilities of heavenly beings. And what do the heavenly beings do? They communicate to us the knowledge of God which they see first hand up in the heavenly courts. By uniting with these powers that are omnipotent, we are benefited by their higher education and experience. Thus as we become partakers of the divine nature, and separate selfishness from our lives, special talents for helping one another are granted us. This is heaven's way of administering saving power. {6T 456.3} What is heaven’s way of administering saving power? Angels receiving the firsthand information communicate it to the human agencies and the human agencies through the word that has been written pass it on to the preachers, pass it on to the church and the church is the light of the world as we have been reading. So the three angels which we are about to study over the series of studies ahead of us can be identified as a group of visible ministries and visible human beings 2SM 387 Reflects this conclusion The angels are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming to the world a message of warning, and having a direct bearing upon the people living in the last days of this earth's history. No one hears the voice of these angels, for they are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven. Men and women, enlightened by the Spirit of God and sanctified through the truth, proclaim the three messages in their order. {2SM 387.1}

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When we study the three angels’ messages we are actually studying what has been proclaimed to the human race and who these particular messengers are – human messengers. In 5T 455-456 we find this further repeated. God has called His church in this day, as He called ancient Israel, to stand as a light in the earth. By the mighty cleaver of truth, the messages of the first, second, and third angels, He has separated them from the churches and from the world to bring them into a sacred nearness to Himself. He has made them the depositaries of His law and has committed to them the great truths of prophecy for this time. Like the holy oracles committed to ancient Israel, these are a sacred trust to be communicated to the world. The three angels of Revelation 14 represent the people who accept the light of God's messages and go forth as His agents to sound the warning throughout the length and breadth of the earth. The three angels of Revelation 14 are the people who accept the message and go forth as God’s agents to sound the warning throughout the length and breadth of the earth. So when we come to the fourth angel of Revelation 18 we have exactly the same principle that was applied to the first, second and third angel. RH 18 Aug 1885 [par14] You must remember that this angel represents the people that have this message to give to the world. Are you among that people? The Revelation 18 angel is another movement of people that proclaim the message of the fourth angel. This quote is in reference to the final message to be conveyed by God’s agents on earth. As we progress with the studies on the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14, it will become increasingly clear that these messages have been communicated to us through human agencies. Close examination of Bible texts and writings of E.G. White will unfold to us the ministers actually responsible for proclaiming these messages since 1844. Now that we have identified God’s method of communicating to humanity, it is with reverence that we proceed to study His written word to learn the deep things of God. One of the deep things that God would delight in us understanding is the beautiful union of the Godhead which will be our next point of study. Until this time may our minds be enlarged by what we have learned.

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2 THE GODHEAD In our second study of the First Angel’s Message entitled The Godhead, we unfold through the scriptures what it really means to “Fear God and give Him the glory”. One of the deep things that God delights in us understanding about Himself is that He is three and yet He is one (see 1 John 5:7.) Through this understanding we realise that where one of the Godhead dwells, the other two persons are perfectly represented. The Holy Trio are three separate beings who are so close to one another and share such an intimate interwoven love relationship that even when they are apart, they are the perfect manifestation of one another. Christ during his time on this earth was the perfect representation of God the Father and the Holy Spirit. So too must we understand that when we enter into a relationship with Christ, we become partakers in this great love relationship that the Godhead share. The scriptures reveal that one day those who become one with Christ will share in His inheritance and become joint heirs with Him. If we are to be joint heirs with Christ, and to be bestowed with the gifts that the Father has bestowed upon Him, we will be brothers and sisters with Christ and sons and daughters of God. Revelation 14:6-7 The scripture says that we are to worship God. But who is God and what is the truth about Him? In John 4:22-24, Jesus reveals there is a requirement to the worship God. While speaking to the woman at the well about the Samaritans Jesus says... God is a spirit, a person with a personality, and the scripture says that TRUE WORSHIPPERS will worship Him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH.

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John 17:3 This is life eternal – to know God. To worship God in spirit and in truth is part of salvation. Jeremiah 9:23, 24 For God to delight in us, we need to glorify Him from the position that we know and understand Him. It is our task then to humbly seek and know Him so we can fear Him and give Him the glory. Job 11:7-8 While the stipulation is laid out before us that we are to know God, for this is life eternal, we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth and we are to glorify Him in the sense that we know and understand Him, is this really possible? In the previous study it was revealed that God has a means of communicating Himself to us so that we might come to know and understand Him. In Zechariah 4:1-4 we recalled that the two cherubim (olive trees) standing in the presence of God communicated the oil (the Holy Spirit), through the golden pipes to lighten up the candlesticks (the seven churches). If we understand this principle correctly, the Old and New Testament are the knowledge of God recorded by human agents. (See also Revelation 11:3-4) 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 It is not what man has searched out that we are about to understand, but what is under the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, not the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:9-13 God communicates the inward thoughts and feelings and the deep things about Himself through the Holy Spirit. That we may come to know and understand him, not according to man’s wisdom, but by what the Holy Ghost teaches. Is the Godhead, the three persons of the heavenly trio, a deep thing of God that needs to be revealed by the Holy Spirit? Deuteronomy 6:4 The Lord our God is one Lord. Isaiah 44:6 There is only one God. Isaiah 45:5 Again it is repeated - there is only one God. Page 13 of 177

Genesis 1:1-3 Here is the one who created the heaven and the earth: The Spirit of God moved upon the waters; while God (in heaven) spoke light into being. Genesis 26,27 God says “let US”, plural, make man in “OUR”, plural, image after “OUR”, plural, likeness. God made man in His own image. 1st John 5:7 To clarify that God is One and yet three separate persons we further read…. John 1:1-3 “The Word was with God and the Word was God”. – They are two separate entities and yet one was the other. Creation took place because the Word that was spoken was with God and was God. Job 33:4. This text explains that it was the Spirit of God that made man and the breath of the Almighty gave him life. The Spirit of God moved upon the waters, God spoke, and the Spirit of God moved. Creation therefore was the activity of three individuals recorded to us as “these Three are One”. The Tower of Babel Genesis 11:5-7 “Let US (plural), go down and there confound their language”. The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Genesis 18:16 Abraham was visited by two angels and the Lord to discuss the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and a few other things. Genesis 18:17. (The Lord is speaking to the two angels here) Genesis 18:20-22. Two of the men (The two angels that rescued Lot from Gomorrah) went on their way, but the Lord remained with Abraham for a little longer. Page 14 of 177

Genesis 18: 33 The story then continues about how the two angels visited Lot in the city of Sodom and told him about the destruction that was going to take place. . Genesis 19:24. The Lord who was one with God, was again in this representation, a plural entity. There was the Lord out of heaven, and there was the Lord on earth. And the Lord on earth rained fire from the Lord out of heaven. Isaiah 48:12-13 In Genesis we read that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and all things were made by Him Who is speaking here in Isaiah “My hand hath laid the foundations of the earth”? - It is the Word. Isaiah 48:16 The Word was sent by the Lord God, and His Spirit, the other two persons of the Godhead who created the world. In placing together the meanings from the different scriptures it becomes abundantly clear that we worship one God, one Lord, meaning Three Persons. They are three separate individuals that can be separated in place, one or more may dwell in heaven while the other is on earth. And there is so much unity between these three Persons that they can move and speak as though they were one. In Summary the plurality and singularity of God may be explored in these scriptures Isaiah 44:6 I am the first and I am the last, beside me there is no God (Singular) Isaiah 48:12 I am he; I am the first, I also am the last (Singular) 1John 5:7 There are three that bear record in heaven (Plural) Genesis 1:1-3 Story of creation “let US make man” (Plural) Gen11:5-7 Let US come down and confuse the language of the people in Babel” (Plural) To know God is eternal life. So how does the knowledge of the Godhead, the three Persons of the Godhead, become so relevant and essential to our salvation? John 16:27,28 Page 15 of 177

The Father loved the disciples because they believed that Jesus (the Word) came out from God to this earth. They believed that although there was one God, this one God was three Persons, and that one of them was sent from the Father into the world. The disciples believed Jesus when He told them “I leave the world and go to the Father.” In Jeremiah we read that God delights in the fact that we know and understand Him. The fact that the disciples knew and understood that Jesus was God, pleased the Father so much that He loved them. To know God and to receive His blessing we too must understand and believe that Jesus was God, and one of the three persons of the Godhead. For this is eternal life – to know God. John 14:16-20, 23 When Jesus departed, He promised to send us another comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would teach us to worship God in spirit and in truth. John 14:17 It was impossible for the disciples to search out God from their own understanding, but Jesus promised they would know God because He would dwell with them and be in them. John 14:18 Jesus will come to us through this comforter, the Holy Spirit. He goes back to His Father, yet through the Comforter He promises that He will come to us. John 14:19-20 This is the Atonement – Christ’s AT-ONE-MENT with us. A very essential element to our salvation. Through the Holy Spirit, who reveals the deep things of God to us, we come to know that Jesus dwells with us in the “plurality” of the Godhead. When Jesus ascended back to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit down to us as another Comforter. The Holy Spirit IS the representation of the Father and the Son here on earth for wherever one is, there are the other two perfectly represented. John 14:23 God being AT-ONE with us is revealed in these words “We will come unto him” and in verse 20 “I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. That Jesus Page 16 of 177

partook with us of our human nature makes us human beings in Jesus. Jesus Christ is with the Father, therefore we also are with the Father, and we are in the Father through Jesus Christ, and Jesus is in us, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, so we may become a saved entity. Here is the knowledge of the Godhead for our salvation. John 17:20-21 Here is the expression of singularity in plurality. They are one even though they are three that we may be one with God even though we are many. We may be one of the Godhead. John17:23-26 The knowledge of the Godhead is important to our salvation. The First Angel’s Message declares: “Fear God and give him the glory.” In Jeremiah 9:23-24 we read that to Fear God and give him the glory is to know and understand Him. Let the world know by our unity in Jesus that through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we know and understand that three can be one just as many can be one. It is the manifestation of this oneness in plurality that is one of the deep things that God has chosen to reveal about Himself to us. May God assist us in the comprehension of this important element of the First Angels Message, to Fear God and Give Him the Glory in the manner in which He has prescribed. Let us contemplate it and make this the meditation of our minds so that we will be part of the unity that Jesus has spoken of.

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3 GOD THE FATHER We now study the facility that God Himself became in His part of the combined trio effort to reach and save humanity. Before the earth was created God was still God, the only potentate, The Great I AM and The Ancient of Days, but when humanity fell into sin, in his great love and mercy toward us he took on the role of a Father. Jesus (the son) shared a very close and intimate relationship with the Father whilst on this earth and we too may participate in just as close a relationship if we heed God’s council in 2 Corinthians 6:17,18. to come out from among them, be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing. What does it mean to worship God in Spirit and in truth? Revelation 14:7 To worship God in spirit and in truth is to know Him as He really is, the Godhead or the three persons of the heavenly trio. The understanding of the Godhead is important to our salvation because when the Holy Spirit comes into our life, He brings the other two members of the Godhead with Him and this is a reality that we all may experience. John 17:20-21 Here is revealed the spiritual impact of the Godhead dwelling in us, the unity that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have is extended to those who believe on Christ. That by believing on Christ, the Holy Spirit may be sent to them and through the Holy Spirit both He, the Father and the Holy Spirit in them will bring about this precious oneness. This is the source by which many people may be thoroughly united in one - through the Godhead. John 17:22-26 The Godhead reality is the method by which “they may be made perfect in one” and it is the method by which the love of the Father can actually be in us because the Holy Spirit is in us. Spirit of Prophecy in 6BC 1075.3 Those who are baptized in the threefold name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, at the very entrance of their Christian life declare publicly that they have accepted the invitation, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and Page 18 of 177

daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." The Godhead is brought out as the hub to the step that is taken in baptism, to be baptized in the threefold name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost at the entrance of the Christian life. Upon baptism God declares “I will receive you and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord almighty.” 2 Corinthians 7:1 Because of this threefold union in us and the possibility of the Father being our Father, we have these precious promises to be made perfect and holy in the fear of God Colossians 3:1 6BC 1075.3 - Par 8 When we have accepted Christ, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit have pledged ourselves to serve God, the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit--the three dignitaries and powers of heaven-pledge themselves that every facility shall be given to us if we carry out our baptismal vows to "come out from among them, and be . . . separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing." When we are true to our vows, He says, "I will receive you" (MS 85, 1901). {6BC 1075.8} Jesus promises that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit will come and make their abode with you and that WE will be made perfect in one, and that the love of the Father will be bestowed upon us. This is a reality for those who become baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The three dignitaries and powers of heaven pledge themselves that every facility shall be given to us IF we carry out our baptismal vows to come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing. (there is a condition here) 2 Corinthians 6:17,18. When we make a baptismal vow in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that we will come out from among the world, God promises to receive us and be a Father to us. His role as a Father then is to train us and raise us up in his ways. We are a family, and he, the first person of the Godhead is the facility of a Father for such children. Ephesians 3:14, 15 Page 19 of 177

The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has taken the position of Father over the whole family in heaven, of which we too may become members if we accept God’s invitation in 2 Corinthians 6:17,18 to come our from the world.. God created all living beings in the universe with the human family last of all. It isn’t revealed how far in the past the beginnings of life took place in the universe, but we do know that the human family was the youngest in the heavenly line of created beings, and as the youngest member of this developing heavenly family, the Father appears very ancient and longstanding to us. Daniel 7:9, 10 The Ancient of Days, is surrounded by thousands upon thousands of created beings and God is the Father of them all. In his role as the Father he is described as the most ancient. Daniel 7:13, 14 Psalms 90:1, 2 The Father, the ancient of days to humanity is the patriarch of the whole human family. How is God a Father to us and what is his work towards us? Psalms 103:13, 14 As the facility of Father toward us, we his sons and daughters are treated with pity and compassion. He knows that we are but dust, that our human constitution is weak and frail. Thus he pities us standing before Him in our sense of sinful weakness. The other paternal care in this Fatherly facility is Hebrews 12:9, 10 As a Father whose children need chastening care, God pities us and corrects us. When God chastens us, we are wise to be in subjection to this. For earthly parents corrected us for their own pleasure, but God does it for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. This is our comfort that the Father is not going to fail in his work in training us, his sons and daughters, to develop a condition of his holiness. Yet another dimension of the Fatherly facility is expressed in… Page 20 of 177

James 1:17 Our Father is benevolent. He delights to give gifts to his children so that every good and perfect gift comes from him. He does not alter in the slightest, there is not even a shadow of turning with Him. We may have perfect confidence that God will bestow on us the gifts he has promised, and find comfort in the fact that he does not falter. In the work of saving, or making holy, his manner is that of a Father. He pities and corrects us as his children, and bestows every good and perfect gift unto us. Now let us examine God’s character through his name, that the facility of Father he offers us may become more meaningful. Exodus 3:13-15 “I AM” makes a very important impression upon the mind of Moses and all those to whom this message comes. “I AM THAT I AM” is present tense. God’s name reveals that the past, present and future are all a present picture part of Him. IAM in the past, I AM in the present, I AM in the future. The facility of the Godhead is always present and this is something for us to appreciate that we are His sons and daughters and therefore past, present and future may also dawn upon our mind as one grand present consciousness. 1 Timothy 6:14-16. Our heavenly Father, the great I AM, is also the only potentate, king and ruler of the universe. When a ruler is a potentate his word is supreme and can’t be contradicted. God is the great potentate of the universe but He is also the same pitying, correcting, benevolent, gift giving Father who created us and brought us into existence. Isaiah 40:28,29 Another dimension of the facility of help that is offered to us in the Godhead is God’s own unwearying energy. When as his sons and daughters we are faint and have no might, he gives of his own never ending power to sustain us. Do we ever have to give over to these overwhelming senses of our weakness and faintheartedness with God as our Father? When our mind is preoccupied by these realities what chance have we of withering or fainting? In summary of what we have studied, God is our pitying, correcting, Page 21 of 177

benevolent Father whose name is The Great I AM. He is the only potentate, our creator and with His own inexhaustible energy supply he promises to sustain us “IF” we stay true to our baptismal vows “to be separate and touch not the unclean thing.” Romans 8:15-17 [19] Through the conviction of the Holy Spirit we are no longer at all in danger of becoming fearful or in bondage with such a pitying God, even though we may faint or fail, he will strengthen us again. he is our Father working closely with us in our own restoration program. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and joint heirs with Christ, this is our privilege. God has offered to be a Father to us in Christ Jesus that we may join the Godhead. The Apostle Paul wrote that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. This promise is attained if we take hold of this work of the heavenly trio, the three dignitaries of the Godhead who have pledged every facility to help us on our way. 1John3:1-2 The inheritance of heaven is that we shall be just like him. We will be pure just as he is pure. 1 John 3:3 He fainteth not, therefore he will continue to communicate energy and power to those who are sinful and weak that they may take hold of this hope and overcome. He will give strength to those who feel faint and are ready to give up. With this new courage and new hope we can move on in the path of purification to be pure as he is pure. In the knowledge of getting to know God as our Heavenly Father lies our true salvation because he offers this facility as our Father to save us. Matthew 5:43-48 Loving our enemies can be wearying and tiring, but God fainteth not and he is our Father. So love your enemies, don’t worry about the wearying experience bless them that curse you, pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. The Lord is at work to chasten us for our profit that we might be partakers of his righteousness, of his perfection. Page 22 of 177

Let us exercise our faith upon these precious facilities offered to us in the worship of God, that when we become faint and weary in our battles, we may be sustained by the hope that is in us.

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4 GOD'S HOLINESS In the Fourth Study of the First Angel’s Message entitled God’s Holiness, we explore through the scriptures what it really means to fear God and give him the glory for the hour of his judgement has come. The hour of his judgement incorporates both God judging us as well as God being judged. For if it is the righteousness of God that works in us to transform the character and create a people zealous of good works, it is then God’s righteousness within us and the resultant activity of that righteousness that will be subject to the judgment. So how does God take a sinful human being and train him up in his ways of righteousness? In our previous study we learned that God has become the facility of a benevolent, pitying, loving, strengthening Father to us IF we promise to be separate from the world and touch not the unclean thing. But there is one other very important facility that God has afforded to us in his love for us as his children. In his role as a Father he needs to chastise and correct us so that we will be transformed into his glory. If we shrink from this correction we may never be changed from our current state but as we look to the one we long to emulate and receive his chastisement in obedience, with meekness and humility, the delicate, operative, spiritual surgery of transforming the character may begin. Hebrews 12:5-10 The facility of the first person of the Godhead is that of a Father who chastises and corrects us so that we may be transformed into His very own image. Psalms 141:5 God’s chastisement will be as an excellent oil if we intelligently apply it to our lives, so that we may be changed into His own likeness. When we understand that God’s corrective work is at hand to perfect the character, his chastisement will be seen in a restorative light. 2 Corinthians 3:18 As God chastises us we immediately have a vision of the one whom we are to emulate, that we may become changed by this correction into his own glory. 1 John 3:1-3 By having this hope in us that “we shall be like him for we shall see Him as He Page 24 of 177

is,” we will be happy to make progress in purifying ourselves with His Fatherly help. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. He chastises us for our benefit that we might be partakers of his holiness and purify ourselves even as he is pure. 1 Peter 1:13-16 A child who is obedient to his Father will be benefited by his Fathers punishment when he has violated his Fathers will. To become holy as he is holy and thereby in the First Angels Message to pass the judgment, we need to have a very clear vision of His holiness so that we are able to reflect it. Exodus 33:18,19 When Moses asked for the glory of God to be revealed, it was his goodness, his holiness and his wonderful character that was revealed. God’s work of chastisement is to enable us to be partakers of his goodness and holiness. Exodus 34:6-7 The glory in the judgement is going to be examined as to whether it really is what it is made out to be in the Bible. God’s holiness, his magnificent character, his majesty and his power are all comprehended in this concept of his glory. Matthew 18:1-3 The question was posed, “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Isn’t that God the Father? Jesus answered this question by placing a little child in the midst of them: and saying “except you be converted and become as little children.” Why did he answer in this way? Matthew 19:14 The greatness of the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is demonstrated by a little child. All of heaven is made up of the basics. The basic building blocks of the greatness of heaven is the manifestation of the innocence and meekness of childlikeness. Page 25 of 177

Isaiah 57:15 God occupies the highest position in the universe, and in that highest position he reveals what sort of a nature he has as he sits together with others in that position. So with whom does God dwell in a high and lofty place? With those who are of a humble and contrite spirit. God’s beautiful childlike character is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Therefore we too will be heirs of God’s holiness if we posses his meek and childlike character. Consider his plan of salvation. He works with a company of people who have been proud, striving for glory, honour and greatness and then he points out to them that the only way his greatness can be attained is through an entire change of spirit. Psalms 33:6-11 God is the only potentate, the one whose word holds the powerful properties of the earth in control. Isaiah 2:19-21 There will be no hiding place anywhere because God’s fierceness will shake them out and there will be nothing which man finds strength and comfort in that will help him at this time. Nahum 1:8-9 This is interesting – God’s fierceness and his child-like innocence and meekness are both characteristics of God. Although he is so fiercesome and is so great, his personality, his character does not lose the child-like gentleness and meekness and innocence. Psalms 9:16 When God exercises his fiercesome glory, his manifestation of punishment, it will be in a manner which shows that His gentleness and childlikeness are still in operation. Psalms 7:11-16

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God’s beautiful character is not going to be obliterated when he exercises his fiercesome punishment because the very instrument of his punishment is the harsh and violent activity of the wicked. God does not punish with a violent character but simply says “oops I’m sorry, you have just hurt yourself by your own violence and I have simply used your violence and your nasty personality to come back upon your head”. God in his awful majesty possesses vast extremities of character. He is childlike, meek, untouched with any harshness or violence and yet he can be identified with the punishment of the wicked. Job 42:5, 6 (Here Job expresses what happened to him when he saw God’s glory.) It is the discovery of God’s vast personality and his holiness that invokes the experience Job has made here. The heart melts, you abhor yourself and repent in dust and ashes. This was the experience of Elijah when surrounded by the extremes of an earthquake, a powerful windstorm and a great fire. He put his garment about him and hid his face because of the extremes of the violence that surrounded God’s presence. Amidst this experience Elijah heard God’s still, small, meek voice and become overwhelmed. Moses was in the same position when he saw the burning bush. he became humble and took off his shoes. There was a deep sense of God’s holiness because the marvel of the presentation of God in his awesomeness was revealed also with the ingredient of his gentleness. This response is also expressed by the angels. Isaiah 6:1-5 Isaiah is humbled by God’s holiness also. And the angels are in awe of God as they express three times holy, holy, holy is the Lord. The manifestation of God’s meekness and gentleness and quietness and yet of his power and fiercesomeness fills a person with the kind of reverence that is due unto him. The admonition of the scripture is that we should hold God in reverence, but it is not until we see God in his holiness that we can actually respond to becoming as holy as he is. Psalms 89:7 This is a declaration of what we should be in God’s presence but while God may help us to come to that condition, he does not just tell us that’s how we have to be. He surrounds us with his holiness so that like the angels, Job, Elijah and Isaiah, we become overwhelmed and hold Him in reverence. God is greatly feared in the assembly of the saints when they behold his holiness. Page 27 of 177

Eccelsiastes 5:1-2 As we come into the presence of God and are affected by His holiness, this same holiness that causes the angels to cover their faces and their feet in front of him, we too will respond to this counsel not to be rash with our mouths or hasty in our hearts to utter anything before God. Leviticus 10:10 The priests who are officiating in the work of the house of God are especially admonished in Leviticus 10 that because of his holiness all commonness and all earthliness is to be left aside. The priests were not permitted to partake of alcohol or intermingle with anything that was not pure and holy as God is holy. This was because their mental capacities had to be unimpaired in the presence of the Lord. The priesthood that failed to do this was seriously rebuked in Ezekiel 22:26 Ezekiel 22:26 God’s particular counsel to those who are upon earth, especially the leaders and the preachers of God’s Word is that they not mingle anything profane with God’s holy realities. If they do this, God will be profaned in the eyes of the people. Our estimation of him will be lowered. In contemplating God’s holiness we are now corrected where we have in our ignorance and blindness of God’s holiness failed. EW 122 (Under the heading of irreverence.) I saw that God's holy name should be used with reverence and awe. The words God Almighty are coupled together and used by some in prayer in a careless, thoughtless manner, which is displeasing to Him. Such have no realizing sense of God or the truth, or they would not speak so irreverently of the great and dreadful God, who is soon to judge them in the last day. Said the angel, "Couple them not together; for fearful is His name." Those who realize the greatness and majesty of God, will take His name on their lips with holy awe. He dwelleth in light unapproachable; no man can see Him and live. I saw that these things will have to be understood and corrected before the church can prosper. {EW 122.1} How is the process of correction to take place? The church wants to prosper and here lies the beginning of the prospering – to see God’s holiness, his meekness, his childlikeness, his loving patience and mercy and yet his awesome power and potentate control over the universe and Page 28 of 177

his fiercesome activity at the time of the destruction of the wicked. These things will all cause man to shake at that time, but it is now time to permit God’s holiness to be imprinted upon us through his chastisement so that we will become holy and dwell in a high and lofty place with him. He wants to dwell with those of a meek and lowly spirit, holy as he is holy, set apart and sanctified. This instruction is not just for the ministry but to all those who follow the counsel of the Lord and are baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. EW111 (1882 Supplement) I fear that we do not believe and realize these things as we should. Referring to the coming of the Lord in His powerful glory. EW 111.1 Those who believe the important truths that we profess, should act out their faith. There is too much seeking after amusements and things to take the attention in this world; the mind is left to run too much upon dress, and the tongue is engaged too often in light and trifling conversation, which gives the lie to our profession, for our conversation is not in heaven, whence we look for the Saviour. In heaven there is awesome joy and love to God and there is no light, trifling atmosphere because God is so high and so holy. {EW 111.2} Angels are watching over and guarding us; we often grieve these angels by indulging in trifling conversation, jesting, and joking, and also by sinking down into a careless, stupid state. Although we may now and then make an effort for the victory and obtain it, yet if we do not keep it, but sink down into the same careless, indifferent state, unable to endure temptations and resist the enemy, we do not endure the trial of our faith that is more precious than gold. We are not suffering for Christ's sake, and glorying in tribulation. We are called upon to let the holy character that God is labouring to bring about in us take root to such an extent that we will cease from making a lie of our profession by light, trifling conversation, jesting and joking and also by sinking down into a careless and stupid state. Therefore let us not sink down to the same careless indifferent state again and again but move up instead to the lofty condition of heaven’s nature and holiness. Only as we see God’s holiness and experience his correction may we appreciate the condition of holiness that we must attain to. Page 29 of 177

1 Peter 2:1 This is our privilege as newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word so that we will grow into the same meek, humble, contrite and holy spirit as our Father. Then we may dwell with him on his throne in a high and lofty place and behold the beautiful manner in which he deals with those who are rebellious against him, and behold his wonderful power in controlling the weights and enormities of the things of nature upon the earth and in the universe. This is our privilege if we will learn it here on earth now – to give God the glory, and by beholding his glory to be changed into the same image from glory to glory into that holy, respectful, joyful, yet not careless and trivialising way of life. May God help us to submit to his correction until we will manifest that holiness which we have just contemplated. Before we move on to the second person of the Godhead, we look at one more characteristic of God’s goodness and holiness and that is God’s grace. This will be our next study as we seek to understand and to worship God in spirit and in truth and receive the benefit of this facility of the Father to bring about the holiness and the character that we are to have under the direction of the First Angel’s Message. May we continue to keep our minds influenced by the manifestation of the Heavenly Father, his personality and his holiness.

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5 GOD'S GRACE In the continuation of the study of God’s holiness, we now examine God’s grace, the grace that lies at the very heart of the Godhead and of the Father. God’s grace is the activity and favour that He extends towards us so that we might become inheritors of His holiness and joint heirs with Jesus. God’s grace is a very important meditation as we come to realise that the grace for a soul who was dead in sin was the death of Jesus Christ and that the grace for a soul who has become alive to his sinfulness is the life of Christ. The life of Jesus is the grace by which God changes a helpless sinner into the workmanship of God. While we were yet sinners God ordained that Jesus had died for us. It is by the life of Christ that the sinner becomes saved and reconciled to God. The study of God’s grace laces through the entire study of the Three Angels Messages that God in his grace toward us sent Jesus, the second person of the Godhead that we might begin to comprehend through His life the power and grace that may be exercised in the sinner. Let us refer to the statement in 6BC 1075 in reference to the Godhead. (MS 85, 1901). {6BC 1075.8} When we have accepted Christ, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit have pledged ourselves to serve God, the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit--the three dignitaries and powers of heaven-pledge themselves that every facility shall be given to us if we carry out our baptismal vows to "come out from among them, and be . . . separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing." When we are true to our vows, He says, "I will receive you" When we are true to our vows, He says, I will receive you. So the Godhead - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, these three dignitaries of heaven, pledge themselves so that every facility shall be given to us. In this study we will be looking at the beautiful facility of God’s grace that is to be bestowed upon us. Here is another beautiful statement…. HP 176 Keep yourselves where the three great powers of heaven--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit--can be your efficiency. These powers work with the one who gives himself unreservedly to God. The strength of heaven is at the command of God's believing ones. The man who makes God his trust is Page 31 of 177

barricaded by an impregnable wall. {HP 176.5} The Father, the one who pities and cares for us and in whom we can be comforted and protected places an impregnable wall around those who make him their trust. As heirs of God we are privileged to be partakers of his holiness. So let us now enlarge and explore this grace in the heart of the Godhead. Exodus 34:6 So one of the ingredients of God's glory is his goodness, mercy and grace. God is full of grace, full of mercy toward the sinner, an expression of unmerited favour. So it is a grace of God to adopt us as his heirs and for him to be our Father. His grace is also expressed as something vast and multiple as we read in 1 Peter 4:10 What does the word manifold mean? A manifold is a pipe that comes out of an engine with several outlets attached to it. This is the adjective word used to describe God’s grace, manifold - more than one. God’s grace is manifold in that there are many kinds of manifestations of his grace, and we are to be the stewards of His grace. And so we ask the question once more as we study into God’s grace, is this still the first angel’s message? How does God’s grace tie in with the First Angels Message of Revelation 14? What was the everlasting gospel that was preached to all the earth’s inhabitants at that time. Focusing on the last part of the verse in Acts 20:24 Acts 20:24 The everlasting gospel preached by the First Angel, is the gospel of God’s grace, the very message of salvation. The word “grace” is the integral part of the very gospel as we read here in Ephesians 4:10 Ephesians 2:4-10 This passage introduces to us that the gospel of Jesus Christ is really the exercise of God's grace. God looked down upon us when we were dead in our sins and in his wonderful mercy and great love brought Jesus down into our very death and then raised us together with Christ. God wants to actually display this grace before our mind, that he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. We are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, not by any Page 32 of 177

quality inherent in us but by the unmerited favour of our Father who works within us so that we will have the quality of his works bought about by his grace. This is beautifully expressed; Romans 4:2-4[5] The Apostle Paul reveals clearly that the merit of our works is not to be commended to God. It is purely the merit of God’s grace that works within us, that we may trust him like Abraham did. God bestows his mercy, favour and grace upon us when there is nothing but sinfulness, that by believing on him we may inherit his righteousness. Let us now examine the operation and the exhibition of this kind of grace more carefully in Ephesians Ephesians 2:7 As we look at God's grace through Christ Jesus we are looking at an active component of God's holiness. This holiness comes into operation inside a person who is incapable of doing the works required of him. We read this beautiful summary concept in…. 2 Corinthians 9:8 God is able to make all grace abound towards you. As he actively involves his grace in you through Jesus Christ, you will be given a sufficiency in all things to fulfil the works required of you. Grace is an active component of God’s character, God’s holiness that comes into operation in and on behalf of a person which is incapable of doing the work required of him. As we turn to 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10 this is further enlarged. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Our sufficiency comes from God inside a vessel of humanity that is totally weak, helpless and hopeless. And yet a person who is weak but believes and trusts like Abraham did has the facility of God’s sufficiency. The entire series of the Three Angels Messages have the component of God’s grace in them. from the works of righteousness that are called forth in the First Angels Message the hour of God’s judgement is come, there is going to be a Page 33 of 177

judgement to investigate whether the works God gave us sufficiency to perform are actually there. This is not to intimidate us, we are simply to take by faith that we are God’s workmanship and that the sufficiency that he has provided for us by his grace will be manifested in the judgement. How do the Three Angels Messages all make reference to God’s grace? To answer this question let us explore the Object, Exercise and Final Product of God’s grace. What is the OBJECT of God’s grace? Romans 5:12 The object of God’s grace is a people who by one man, Adam and Eve, were made to be sinners. Romans 5:19 Examines this point further For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners Education 29 The result of the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is manifest in every man's experience. There is in his nature a bent to evil, a force which, unaided, he cannot resist. To withstand this force, to attain that ideal which in his inmost soul he accepts as alone worthy, he can find help in but one power. That power is Christ. [Ed. 29.1] This is the contemplation that by one man’s sin, many were made sinners. By one man’s eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there became manifest in every man’s experiences, in his nature, a bent to evil, a force which unaided he could not resist. We all have a bent to evil and this is the object of God’s grace. We cannot succeed in doing the good that God wants us to do without His help. This is further expressed in… Jeremiah 13:23 Just as the Ethiopian can’t change his skin or the leopard change his spots, the condition that has been made through one man’s sin is impossible to alter. Humanity is accustomed to evil.

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This was what the apostle Paul was sharing in his experience in… Romans 7:18-24 The Apostle Paul, broken and contrite is crying out here, I can’t help myself, I just keep on doing the opposite to what my genuine heart desires. Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me? A human cry like this is the object of God’s grace. He cannot help but come to the assistance of such a helpless being. Psalms 51:17 expresses this further God's grace cannot despise a sinner who keeps on failing and sinning but feels so terrible that he keeps on doing it that he cries oh wretched man, I can’t help myself, who will help me? Grace stands up to this call and will not disdain or despise such a person. Another component of God’s grace is his response to his erstwhile (former) child 1 Peter 5:5 A humble contrite spirit is the object of God’s grace. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. This is the object of God’s grace, a broken, contrite spirit in need of his help. What EXERCISE does God now employ towards such a person or what is the exercise of God’s grace? Romans 5:6 God had already pre-empted the assistance available before we even came to our senses how weak we really were. Romans 5:7-10 Here we see God had already been prepared to respond to a broken and contrite heart. He had already laid out before that soul upon coming to the sense of his condition, a wonderful love sacrifice. And now that we have come to our senses, much more, being now justified by his blood, believing as Abraham did, we will certainly be saved from wrath through him. For when we were yet enemies with God we were reconciled through the death of his son but by his life we shall be saved. Page 35 of 177

This is something profound to study. God has given us the life of Jesus and it is by his life that we become saved. The life of Jesus was as much a part of God’s grace toward us as his death. The grace for a soul who was dead in sin was the death of Jesus Christ. The grace for a soul who has become alive to his sinfulness is the life of Christ. The life of Jesus is the grace by which God changes a helpless sinner into the works of God. We now reflect back on; Ephesians 2: 10 When we are saved by his life, we become his workmanship. He works within us - created in Christ Jesus unto good works so that a sinner in Christ Jesus can become saved by his life. How is the sinner in Christ helped by God’s grace? Hebrews 5:7-9 Notice what this is saying, we are saved by his life. What was his life like? Who in the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because he feared. He learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Here is the sinner in Christ, learning, and being made perfect. Jesus is our example, the eternal author of salvation. He yielded Himself to the workmanship of God working inside of him to perfect Him, so that anyone who is in Christ would learn of that authorship and thus be saved by his life. Let us also read 2 Corinthians 13:4. See how we are saved by the life of Christ? It was the power of God by whom Jesus lived. We also are weak with Him but we shall live with him by the power of God. In Ephesians it says that we will sit together in heavenly places through his wonderful combination with us. To sit together in heavenly places we are weak with him but we shall live with him by the power of God. This is worthy to explore more as we see the exercise of that grace in Jesus Christ. And it is to such a believer who actually learns and understands these scriptures we have just been reading, that the words of Galatians 2:16 apply

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Galatians 2:16 Here we see this beautiful declaration that we can only be saved by the faith of Jesus Christ. We are not justified by the works of the law or any motivation of our own to keep the law – it is the faith of Jesus. Galatians 2:20 The faith of Jesus involved offering up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to the Father. So it will be with the believer who combines himself in a living relationship with Jesus. God in his grace toward us sent Jesus, the second person of the Godhead that we might begin to comprehend through His life, the power and grace that may be exercised in the sinner. This is the EXERCISE of the believer, to avidly engage in this activity of grace. Looking now at the end PRODUCT of God’s grace Romans 2:6-7 Those avidly engaging in that faith of Jesus Christ will do the deeds that will cause God to render to them eternal life and those deeds will be the action of God’s grace through Jesus Christ. This is the wonderful PRODUCT that results from God’s grace – the product of eternal life. By God’s grace we become affected to exercise ourselves in works of righteousness so that God may grant us eternal life. This is beautifully expressed in Titus 2:11-14 Titus 2:11-14 Jesus gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity hence grace is the active demonstration of Jesus Christ’s living experience in us. And this is the blessed hope that we are striving for – eternal life. Colossians 1:26-28 1 John 5:11,12 Eternal life is ours if we will be in Christ and exercise the activity of the faith of Jesus Christ. Then we will have eternal life because we have Jesus in us and this is the hope of glory. In Colossians 3:1-4 it says that we shall appear with him in glory - for if we have been with him in weakness and with him in life, we will then have the full product of that beautiful life in eternity.

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Colossians 3:1-4 When we set our affections on things above and become dead so that our life is hid with Christ in God, we shall appear with him in glory. This is the beau fitful comprehension of the activity of grace for us. We have Bible text by Bible text that maps out to our mind’s eye the beautiful active component of God’s grace. It is all in the gift of Jesus Christ. It is what God the Father has given to us, his children, in Jesus Christ. And this will be the subject or our next Bible study, the second person of the Godhead, who has been sent by the Father to enact his description of the object of God’s grace, the exercise of God’s grace and the result of God’s grace for the benefit of man. This will be a valuable study in assisting us in our own actions of learning about - how to become holy as God is holy. In summary let us now contemplate the precious benefits of what we have been reading in the book heavenly places p 195. Heavenly Places p 195 All heaven is interested in men and women whom God has valued so much as to give His beloved Son to die to redeem them. No other creature that God has made is capable of such improvement, such refinement, such nobility as man. Then when men become blunted by their own debasing passions, sunken in vice, what a specimen for God to look upon! Man cannot conceive what he may be and what he may become. Through the grace of Christ he is capable of constant mental progress. Let the light of truth shine into his mind and the love of God be shed abroad in his heart and he may, through the grace Christ has died to impart to him, be a man of power--a child of earth but an heir of immortality. {HP 195.5} Man is capable of constant mental progress as the truth shines into his mind. God’s love will be shed abroad in his heart so that he may, through the grace Christ has died to impart to him, become a man of power. As we meditate upon the light of truth that shines into our mind, the powerful activity that is available to us through God's grace will become a precious reality to us. May God bless us in our comprehension of this subject that it may be a launching pad into greater dimensions of appreciation.

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6 GOD THE SON Having appreciated that the First Person of the Godhead became the facility of a Father to us in His effort to reach and save humanity, we now look at the facility that the Second Person of the Godhead provided for us when He took on the role of The Son. The Word of God lay aside all His glory and divinity and made Himself of no reputation to become begotten as a babe in Bethlehem. This is God’s grace and mercy toward us and the wonderful facility that the Word of God pledged Himself for humanity. Later in this study we come to realise that it was at an infinite cost and painful process that The Word of God became restricted to a seed in a woman’s womb, to grow up experiencing childhood, adolescence and manhood in the embodiment of sinful flesh. During His life here on earth Jesus the Son was tempted in every respect that we are tempted but He overcame that He might be our example, the author and finisher of our salvation. Through obedience He demonstrated his unwavering love to God, even to the death of the cross. Through His sufferings He became perfected not only to be our sin bearer but to demonstrate that sin in sinful human flesh can be overcome through our continual combined effort with the Godhead and the facilities they have promised to us IF we will come our from among them, be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing. The life and death of Jesus Christ IS the preaching of the everlasting gospel and God’s abounding grace toward us. Revelation 14:6 What is the focal point of the everlasting gospel? Mark 1:1 Ephesians 3:14-15 Not only is God the Father of the whole family in heaven and earth. But here in verse 14, God is also identified as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us now explore the origin of Jesus, the Second Person of the Godhead. 1 John 5:7 The Second Person of the Godhead is called the Word. John 1:1-3

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The Word is God, and was with God from the beginning, and all things were made by Him. Revelation 19:13 John 1:14 The Word, the Second Person of the Godhead, who was always there, was made flesh and was termed as the ‘Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth’. In Isaiah 9:6 we find a prophecy of the only begotten that was to be born and to become flesh Isaiah 9:6 ‘Unto us a child is born’ who was God, and yet He became a Son. He himself was also called the Everlasting Father, but the First Person of the Godhead took on the role of the Father, so when this second Person came into the role of the human benefits that were provided for us, He was given, not as a Father, but as a son. Hebrews 1:5 The Son was begotten of the Father. But at what point did this occur? Rev1: 8-13 (Revealed to John in prophecy that the Second Person of the Godhead is always there) Who was speaking here? In verse eight it says the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Lord which was, which is to come, the Almighty. This is again repeated in verse 11 by the one standing amidst the seven golden candlesticks, who is likened unto the Son of Man. John the revelator recognized that it was Jesus who had declared Himself to be the Almighty, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, who was and who is to come. John 8:58 (Jesus is quizzed here by the Pharisees as to who He is) The Pharisees were going to stone Jesus because he had claimed to be “I AM” but he hid himself from them, and went out from the midst of them.

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Micah 5:2 The prophecy of where the Messiah is to be born Jesus, the one to be born in Bethlehem, is from of old, from everlasting. Although Jesus was begotten this does not mean that this is the point where He began. The relationship of the Word and the Father existed for all eternity. Hebrews 1:8-10 (First Person of the Godhead is communing with the Second Person of the Godhead) In this conversation between the two Persons of the Godhead -- the Father declares to the Son ‘Thy throne O God is forever and ever.’ He addresses the Son as God whose throne is forever and ever. Zechariah 13:6, 7 The First Person of the Godhead refers to the Second Person of the Godhead as - ‘My Fellow’. He who was the fellow of the Godhead was delivered to this earth by way of birth to be our shepherd, to be slain. Isaiah 48:16 The Second Person of the Godhead has always existed but there came a point where he was sent to earth and had to be begotten. Psalms 2:7 (Another account of the First Person talking to the Second Person of the Godhead.) The Second Person of the Godhead was sent to this earth by the decree of birth, and the word ‘begotten’ has been used here in reference to somebody who already exists. The First Person of the Godhead states to the Second Person of the Godhead…“I will make a decree that there is going to be a point in time in which I will declare You to be begotten unto Me”. While in the beginning The Word, the Second Person of the Godhead was just as the Everlasting Father, by decree He took on the role of the son. Philippians 2:5-7 This is the remarkable expression of the fact that Jesus already existed as God. He was in the form of God and He was equal with God but He made Himself of no reputation and took upon Himself the role of a human being. from the scriptures we understand that there was never a time when the Word Page 41 of 177

didn’t exist, but there came a time when the Word confined Himself to a human birth and was thereby begotten as a son. The purpose of course was for the Three Persons of the Godhead to provide a facility to reach those in need of spiritual salvation. 6BC 1075 When we have accepted Christ, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit have pledged ourselves to serve God, the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit--the three dignitaries and powers of heaven-pledge themselves that every facility shall be given to us if we carry out our baptismal vows to "come out from among them, and be . . . separate, . . ." That was why Jesus was to be begotten, so that He could become a Son and provide for the human family a facility to help them. The Second Person of the Godhead pledged Himself the facility of a son, just as the First Person of the Godhead pledged himself the facility of a Father. Hebrews 2:9-18. Jesus was made a little lower than the angels FOR the Suffering of Death. It was by the grace of God that He was made a human being to taste death for every man. And he did this to bring many sons unto glory and to provide a facility whereby many people could become sons of God. He became perfect through His sufferings to be our captain and example so that He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified may become one, sons. Jesus became in all things like unto us, He grew as a seed inside of a woman’s womb. As He grew from childhood into a man He became our merciful and faithful high priest making intercession for us. Through His life example we are taught how to approach the Father and be reconciled through Christ Jesus for our own sins. 18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. His human lifespan was a painful process for the end that He could help all others who suffer. The Upward Look p90. Christ, at an infinite cost, by a painful process, mysterious to angels as well as to men, assumed humanity. Hiding His divinity, laying aside His glory, He was born a babe in Bethlehem. It was a painful process for the Word to assume humanity. The infinite one, the Second Person of the Godhead became confined into the seed of Abraham to be born of a woman’s womb. Jesus pledged himself to us that He might be able to succour us in our sufferings and temptations just as a small child is succoured by its mother. Page 42 of 177

To those who would leave the world behind and devote themselves to the plan of salvation, God has provided the facility of His Son. All who respond to the Father’s invitation of 2Corinthians 6:17, 18 may be beneficiaries of this help. 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 God the Father, the First Person of the Godhead promises to be a Father to us if we will come out from the world and devote ourselves totally to Him. The Word placed Himself into the position of one who is being sanctified, a Son, to be dealt with by the Father as a Son. When we combine our efforts with Christ, both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified all become one. John 17:4 When Jesus has fulfilled His role as the Son on Earth He finished the work of the Second Person of the Godhead, the Son, the Begotten, from the path of conception through to adulthood, fulfilling every part of those He wanted to save John 17:5 And now He says having done that work: Jesus at the close of His death now desires to go back to the position of being next to the one who He was with from all eternity, before the world was. This is a powerful revelation of scripture that reveals to us the Word always was with the Father but that He was begotten as a Son to help and save humanity. In Christ Jesus every source of help is available to us. God’s Grace toward us is demonstrated in the facility of His Son, that we too may partake in the closeness of the Father/Son relationship.

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7 THE HOLY SPIRIT We now begin our examination of the Third Person of the Godhead, The Holy Spirit. In 6BC 1075 it was revealed that the three dignitaries of heaven, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have pledged themselves to offer every facility in our recovery of spiritual salvation. The First Person of the Godhead pledged himself as a ‘Father’ that we might be his sons and daughters. The second person of the Godhead, The Word, became ‘begotten’ of the Father as a Son that we might be co-heirs with him. And the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, pledged himself the facility of ‘Another Comforter’. In the following study we will identify why Jesus said that it was expedient for him to go away and for the Holy Spirit to come in his place as another comforter. To enlarge in our minds that the Holy Spirit is the third intelligent, creative person of the Godhead, we will study his qualities relevant to our human needs as they are revealed through the scriptures. The Holy Spirit, our comforter, is bestowed with the unique and intimate ability of imparting the deep knowledge of God and of Jesus into the very core of man. He has pledged himself the facility of a comforter for our benefit that through this imparted knowledge we might have eternal life. John 14:16-18 Jesus says I will come to you through the comforter. John 14:23-26 When the Holy Spirit dwells in us, Jesus and the Father abide in us also. The third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, another comforter, is yet another facility of the Godhead to help us. The knowledge of God is communicated INWARDLY Isaiah 48:16 “I pray the Father he will send you another comforter just like I was sent by the Father and by the Holy Spirit and now I am sending the Holy Spirit in agreement with the Father.” The Godhead offer and pledge themselves being sent one of another, to help and to comfort us in recovering from sin. The following scripture summarized the Godhead as we have seen above and identifies the Holy Ghost accordingly as the Third Person of the Godhead. Page 44 of 177

1 John 5:7 The Holy Spirit bears a record in heaven Now let us examine where the Holy Spirit functions in creation. Genesis 1:1-3 God created the heaven and earth, then the Holy Spirit moved and in verse three the Word spoke. Genesis 1:26 When God created us he spoke and said let US make man. Who then was the active moving force after God expressed his desire to create man? Job 33:4 When God decided to make man, it was the Holy Spirit that made Him and the breath of the Almighty that gave him life. The third person of the Godhead is a creative person just like the Father and the Son

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The Holy Spirit is a person The attributes of the Holy Spirit that make him a creative, intelligent person are detailed in the scriptures below. SCRIPTURE

ATTRIBUTE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

1 Corinthians 2:11

The Spirit of God is a being of knowledge with a mind. The Holy Spirit has a will, and by his will he divides to every man according to his personal discerning ability of will.

1 Corinthians 12:11

Romans 8:27

The Holy Spirit makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. He searcheth hearts to know what is the mind of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a mind and he exercises his mind to carry out his will, the will of God.

Romans 15:30

The Spirit of God has the property of affection and love. He has an intelligent mind and is able to commune with your intelligent mind so that you can feel an intelligent person is drawing near to you.

2 Corinthians 13:14

Ephesians 4:30

The Holy Spirit has emotions and can be grieved.

Hebrews 10:29 Acts 5:9

The Holy Spirit can be insulted. He can be tempted.

Acts 5:3 (Ananias and Saphira tempted/angered the Holy Spirit because they lied to God.)

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Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit by keeping back part of the price of the land after he had promised to give all of it. Acts 5:4 By lying to the Holy Spirit Ananias and Saphira actually lied and deceived God. The scriptures provide the full display of three persons identified as the Godhead. Daniel 7:9-10 Daniel 7:13-14 The Ancient of Days is sitting on his throne as a visible person with the second person of the Godhead, the Son of man coming into his presence. And the Son of man who was born on the earth as our priest comes to receive his kingdom. But where is the Holy Spirit in this picture? The answer is simply that the Spirit of God is everywhere. In the Psalm of David it is written that the Holy Spirit is omnipresent …. Psalms 139:1-14 Psalms 139:23-24 The Holy Spirit is not confined to a physical form or place. Our communion with him is particularly intimate because he knows our innermost thoughts and feelings. What impact would this person have in my life (as a facility for salvation)? John 14:17. The Holy Spirit can permeate any physical structure and dwell inside us. John 17:3 The knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ for eternal salvation can only be imparted to us by the Holy Spirit. We may hear sermons over the pulpit and still not attain real knowledge as it is expressed here in Corinthians….

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1 Corinthians 2:9-12 All the facilities of the Godhead for our salvation may be freely known and revealed to us by the Spirit that dwells in God. The Spirit of God can communicate very intimately inside of us the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ – This is life eternal. Colossians 1:26,27 This is a mystery that the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that person who is now in the presence of God, can actually come into you by the same Spirit that is in Christ. The disciples were with Jesus in the chamber, and all the time Jesus was trying to tell them about the knowledge of himself and of the Father. But they could not grasp what he was trying to tell them. They failed to understand. It can be very difficult to bring into the mind of another person that which is in your mind. But God and Jesus Christ are not so hampered because that which is in their mind can be extended intimately into our mind through the Holy Spirit. And this is the mystery – Christ dwelling in you, the hope of glory. 6BC 1112 The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. We do not see Christ and speak to him, but his Holy Spirit is just as near us in one place as in another. It works in and through every one who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of the Spirit reveal the fruits of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith (MS 41, 1897). {6BC 1112.1} When the Holy Spirit is in us he can reveal to us the intimate things of what is inside of Jesus. This intimate knowledge is what Jesus was referring to when he said in John 17:2,3, this is life eternal that you may know God and Jesus Christ, not only that you might know about him, but that you might know him, intimately as part of your own personal experience. The Holy Spirit works in and through everyone who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of the Holy Spirit produce the fruits of the Spirit. This intimate knowledge is life eternal. COL 408 Without the Spirit of God a knowledge of his word is of no avail. The theory of truth, unaccompanied by the Holy Spirit, cannot quicken the soul or sanctify the heart. One may be familiar with the commands and promises of the Bible; but unless the Spirit of God sets the truth home, the character will not be transformed. Without the enlightenment of the Spirit, Page 48 of 177

men will not be able to distinguish truth from error, and they will fall under the masterful temptations of Satan. Without the Spirit of God we only have a theoretical knowledge of him. The knowledge of God can only be ours when the Spirit that dwells in God and Christ Jesus, dwells in us also. The facility of God as Father over us, and the Son as a brother, are intimately woven into our appreciation by the presence of the Holy Spirit inside of us. 1 Corinthians 2:16 The very mind of Christ, which is also the mind of the Spirit may be imparted to us. SD 34 How man can be a counterpart of Jesus Christ is beyond human comprehension. But the Holy Spirit can strengthen our spiritual eyesight, enabling us to see what our natural eyes cannot see, or our ears hear, or our minds comprehend. By the Spirit which searches all things, even the deep things of God, have been revealed precious truths which cannot be described by pen or voice. {SD 34.2} In all who will submit themselves to the Holy Spirit a new principle of life is to be implanted; the lost image of God is to be restored in humanity. This is how we can be a counterpart of Jesus. John 16:7 The disciples were quite content to fellowship with Jesus as a wonderful personality, listen to his wonderful teachings and see him as a separate human being from themselves. But Jesus said “it is expedient for you that I go away because if I do not go away, you will be contented to hold me at a distance. But if I go away, I will send you the comforter who will come unto you and communicate to you in a far more intimate manner than I could do by being here in person.” If the Spirit’s presence can vivify knowledge to the dimension that the very mind of Jesus can be imparted into my mind, then if I have the Holy Spirit I have all that I will ever need to be one with Jesus Christ. John 16:12-15 As the intimate things of Jesus are communicated to the Spirit that dwells in him, they are then intimately communicated to the same spirit that dwells in you. The Holy Spirit will take of what he has gained in Jesus and inject it into Page 49 of 177

your mind as an actual property of the mind of Christ. This is why Jesus said…. “It is expedient that I go away because when the Spirit of truth comes He will guide you into the things which I have not been able to get across to you. You can’t bear what I have shared in simple words because you need the Holy Spirit to show you of Me. He will receive of mine and intimately, personally show it unto you.” The third person of the Godhead pledges himself this facility for your and my salvation. A facility that is mysterious, supernatural, infinite, incapable of being explained but can be experienced as we open our response to the truths. The fullness of the Godhead bodily is displayed before our minds eye as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit pledge themselves to provide every facility to aid mankind in their restoration. The same facilities that were at work in creation now move upon us. These intelligent appreciations of the Godhead enable us to worship God in spirit and in truth. In God providing for us the facilities of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we now move into our next study which is entitled the Fall of Man. This study examines the reality of where we really are (lost in sin) and the activity Jesus undertook in order to become our ransom. As we begin to understand the process of our position and that of Jesus Christ among us, the beautiful activity of the everlasting gospel is unfolded before us. Having now received the picture of the facilities of the three beings of the Godhead, let us continue to hold in our appreciation the things we have studied thus far. May the things we have learned be a continued source for the further unveiling of truth.

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8 THE FALL OF MAN In our eighth study of the First Angel’s Message entitled The Fall of Man we examine the beautiful communion that first existed between God and man in Eden. God created man upright with no bias toward evil and as long as man remained loyal to the divine law his conception of God’s immeasurable love toward him could only deepen and grow. But when Adam transgressed the law of God man became infected with a bent to evil in his mind which left unaided he was powerless to overcome. When all should have been lost through sin, God in His divine love and foresight laid out a plan of salvation to reach and save us even before the foundation of the world. Through the appreciation that it is us who have become separated from God through sin, the enmity and fear of God that is naturally ingrained in our carnal mind becomes understood in its proper light. The antidote to our fallen, human way of thinking can only be received through the Great Heavenly Physician. He laid down the life of His son to redeem us that through the mind exercise of this redemptive program we might begin the work of healing the mind and reconciling ourselves back to God. We read here in Genesis that after the foundations of the world are laid the Godhead begin the process of creating man Genesis 1:26-27 The word man here involves both male and female. They are separate entities and yet they are called man. In like manner, God is three and yet He is one. John 14:16-18 (The Godhead at work in the salvation of man.) In God’s activity of assisting man He says “we” (all three members of the Godhead) will come and make our abode with him (man). The three Persons of the Godhead are constantly at work to achieve the salvation of man. Ephesians 4:23-24 The new man is created in the image of God, just like he was at creation. 1 John 3:2 This is the work of the First Angel’s Message and the preaching of The Everlasting Gospel to restore man back into God’s image, to recreate man as it was at creation.

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Romans 1:16-17 The just live by faith that the righteousness of God will be in them through the gospel, for this is the power of God unto salvation. Revelation14: 6 The preaching of The Everlasting Gospel is where the restorative work of recreating man in God’s image is begun, but first we need to gain a deep appreciation of our own sinful condition. Without this appreciation, the healing antidote of the everlasting gospel will be of little benefit to us. It is only through acknowledging our sin sick state that we can truly appreciate the preciousness of Jesus as our great physician who can heal and restore us through the gospel. If we’re not aware that we are sick, how then may we come to the gospel to be cured? Mark 2:16,17 Jesus actually came to benefit and bring salvation to those who most sense their sinfulness – the publicans and sinners. On the other hand those who feel righteous within themselves can never appreciate the benefit of the gospel as a healing, recovering benefit because they don’t know that they are sick. But what is this sickness of every human being that needs to be cured? And what is the nature of the fall of man? This is the quest of our study, to really become sensitive to the nature of our fall, to be sensitive to the condition of our sickness so that the Gospel will be deeply appreciated by the sense of our sinfulness. Psalms 8:4-6 (The condition, joy and privileges of man before the fall) At creation there was a tremendous calibre of love and a wonderful rapport between God and man. And in this love relationship God entrusted all His creativity and handiwork upon the earth into the hands of man. This was a deep trust exercise as God’s creation was very dear and precious to Himself. John 14-15 It was this same love that existed at creation, man loved God and sensed the importance of God’s creation and with what care it needed to be tended over. 1 John 2:3-5 It is beautifully expressed here that by a warm love relationship and a knowledge of one another, the work of God could be entrusted into the hands of Page 52 of 177

man because he would keep the laws of God that would sustain this beautiful creation that God had made. If Adam and Eve in their pristine condition of creation would continue to love God and keep His commandments this would be the manifestation that they were capable of taking care of God’s creation. In order to care for God’s creation it was imperative that this love be sustained. Matthew 22:37-38 It is imperative for man to love God so completely that he would not destroy or interfere with any part of God’s creation in breach of that love. This was the situation before the fall. God loved to come to man and visit him and talk with him. In Genesis Chapter three we read that God came to commune with Adam and Eve but something had changed in their attitude towards Him. Genesis 3:8-10 Now when God’s voice was heard walking in the cool of the day, it was natural for Adam and Eve in their love for God, to come to Him and commune with Him. as they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [was] naked; and I hid myself. If Adam and Eve had loved and trusted God why would they have suddenly run away from Him and become afraid? A breakdown in their love-trust relationship had occurred – because there is no fear in perfect love.

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1 John 4:18 (Here lies the pivoting point of the fall of man.) When Adam and Eve ate of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this action demonstrated a loss of their love for God. The condition of the fall in this respect was loss of love. Because perfect love casteth out all fear, when fear does arise, it is accompanied by torment and this torment in the mind results in adverse affects on the human adrenal / hormonal system. The effect of fear and stress cause the adrenal system to inject poison into our system with the torment that we are suffering through. And this is summised so well in the scripture “the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die”, or it says “dying thou shalt die” The moment that fear came into existence was the point that the human race became sin-sick. The poison injected into the body through fear/stress would destroy the entire human race. That one act of estrangement of mankind towards God affected the human race thereafter and this caused the fall of man. Romans 5:12 By one man’s action of this nature, there came into the condition of man a disease, a sickness. The condition of fear inside of a man because of his insubordination to the obedience of God and to the love of God resulted in his condition of sin and death. from 5:19 All who were the offspring of Adam after the fall would be in a condition of the loss of the love of God and would be in affliction of fear as Adam experienced when he fled from God. Romans 3:9-12,23 Apostle Paul speaking of the Gentiles. Are we better than they? (i.e. those who know they’re sick in terms to those who don’t know they’re sick) If it would not be for God, then all that we do would be wrong and sinful. There is none that doeth right, no, not one and this is the consequence of one man’s sin, the whole race has become affected. By one man’s sin many were made sinners and many were produced who would also fail to do God’s will. Book of Education p29.1 The result of the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is manifest in every man's experience. There is in his nature, a bent to evil, a force which, unaided, he cannot resist. Here is the appreciation that all have sinned and that there is none that doeth Page 54 of 177

right, no not one. Why? Because of the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. By this very action many were made sinners and man’s nature became bent to evil, a force which left unaided he cannot resist. To withstand this force, to attain that ideal which in his inmost soul he accepts as alone worthy, he can find help in but one power. That power is Christ. {Ed 29.1} This is our condition as it really is “there are non righteous, no not one”. If anyone thinks they are righteous like the Laodiceans or the Pharisees, they have become blinded to the fact that they are wretched miserable, poor, blind and naked. This needs to be clearly illuminated before our eyes so that we cannot cosset the thought that we are righteous. Only through the appreciation of our sin sick state will we appreciate the need of the great physician. It will also help us to realise that our condition stems from a breakdown in the relationship between God and man which is based on perfect love and not fear. Unfortunately fear resides in all humanity so all are sick and in need of the physicians help yet only few know it. Jeremiah 17:1. Man’s bent to evil Our very motive force, sin, has been inscribed upon the table of our heart, (the mind) and the horns of our altar (the governing force/brain). Sin has been etched into the physiological framework of humanity and this is why we are in such a deplorable condition. Jeremiah 13:23 This is the inscription of evil caused through Adam’s sin, a bent to evil that can’t be overcome without the physician’s help. Because of the fall of man, the everlasting Gospel needs to come in, not as a revelator, but as a ‘recreator’. The leopard and the Ethiopian need to be totally made over again. 8T 312 The description of the need to be made over again. The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption the sacrifice of Jesus reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. Through sin the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted. Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. Temptations from without find an answering chord within the heart, and the feet turn imperceptibly toward evil. {8T 312.2} Man’s whole perception has been perverted so that the feet turn imperceptibly to evil. The bent is imperceptible in that man cannot comprehend why it’s happening. The Apostle Paul experienced this bent to evil when he exclaimed in Page 55 of 177

from 8:24 “O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death” V15“For that which I do I allow not, for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate that I do.” Isaiah 1:4-6 Here is the description of a truly wretched nation. Why is it a wretched nation? Because one man’s sin made many sinners and their natural bent was to continue to be separated from the deep love relationship that existed before the fall. There has been a separation because of sin and there is a bent to sin so that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the condition is very simple, very straightforward and plain. So it is a condition where the image of God and the close relationship with the Life-giver has been segregated. Isaiah 59:1,2 If God is merciful toward us in that his hand is not shortened to save nor ear too heavy to hear us, where does the problem in the breakdown of the relationship between God and man arise? Even after Adam and Eve had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God still came down to visit them. He never withdrew from them. So where did the problem arise? We once enjoyed a very deep intimate loving relationship with our Father but when we became separated from Him through sin a great void was left in humanity with nothing to take it’s place. We search for deep love in relationships and anywhere but in God only to find that this void can’t be filled. Philippians 3:4-6 (The story of Saul who became Paul). Before Paul made his experience with God, he was a Pharisee and felt no need of the gospel. He felt that because he was a Benjaminite, circumcised on the eighth day, he was righteous by his own actions, but Jesus said I have come not to save the righteous but to save sinners. Until we make our experience with Jesus and realize our true condition we will be in a state of untouchableness. When the apostle Paul made his experience with Christ, from 7 describes what happened inside of him. Romans 7:9,10, 14, 15, 18, 19, 23 When Paul made his experience with Jesus on the road to Damascus this was a different experience to keeping the letter of the law which Paul had done all his life, he met the law as it is in Jesus Christ, in living entity so that when the commandment came, sin revived. (In other words his sinful condition was enlivened to his appreciation.) Up until this point he had kept the letter of the law which he thought was giving him life but it was crushing him because he Page 56 of 177

had no concept of his sinfulness. Here is a full demonstration of the nature of man’s fall. He has fallen to a condition where by one man’s sin many were made sinners, made carnal, sold under sin, we are full of stress, full of the shocking discovery of our sinfulness and here lies the condition of our disease. And we cry out for release but there is help in but one. The help comes but in one method and that is in the re- creative activity and the energy of the Godhead that we have just been studying about. God’s character, goodness, mercy and power. Rom1: 16,17 (We need to know the power of God) Since the fall of man we all have a bent to evil a product of which is fear. Why do we have fear? Because we know the things that God wants us to do and we want to be able to do them because they are just and good - but fear grabs our heart when we realise we can’t. If you know that you want to save yourself from destruction and you are striving to get away from it but you can’t what happens within your heart? Panic! This is a condition of abject fear. Because of one man’s sin we have become segregated from the close relationship and love that we once shared with God. And so, because we are children of fear, stress and anguish, God who has been segregated from us by our action has brought about a plan and an activity from His part that would actually step in and do something to recreate us. This power of God coming into activity to save us from fear is the object of our next study. In order to appreciate the power of God unto salvation it is important that we first comprehend the true nature of our condition, only then will we realise our great need of the healing physician. Let us meditate upon this truth as it is preached in the First Angels Message, the Everlasting Gospel that we may grasp hold of it and see its relevant application t our lives.

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9 CHRIST'S ATONEMENT In our current study entitled “Christ’s Atonement” we explore another component of God’s grace in providing the healing antidote for a fallen, sin-sick race. In His manifold grace toward us God pledged us the facility of His Son, Jesus Christ that by His death we might be redeemed and that by His life we might be reconciled or made at one with the Father. As we proceed with our current study entitled Christ’s Atonement we will learn in all practical reality how to apply the healing remedy of the atonement to re-create our mind anew. Let us now commence our study by recalling the words of the First Angel as they are recorded her in Revelation 14, Revelation 14:6,7 It is the discovery of the Godhead and the deep appreciation that we are to worship Him as the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost that enables us to behold His perfect character and worship Him in spirit and in truth. As we make this our meditation, a deep sense of our own deplorable condition comes upon us. We try to do the right but in every mans’ nature there is a bent to evil which left unaided he cannot overcome. It would take a direct intervention from God for us to attain to a condition of His holiness. So how then does God intervene to help us overcome our sinful nature? The answer lies in the facilities that the Godhead have pledged for the benefit and restoration of the humanity. The first person of the Godhead took upon himself the role of the Father – He played a role model for us to reach to – a perfect Ancient of Days whom we may become like. The second person of the Godhead became a Son here on earth to give us the example of the training that God has to give to His children. And the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit became the one who applies the inward workings of the Father and the Son within us. Hopefully in our last study we became entirely aware of our deplorable condition from which we are to be saved that through this realisation we would be compelled, not in a negative sense, to solicit aid from the Great Heavenly Physician. What is the remedy that this Godhead needs to render to us as a remedy for our sin-sick condition? ( a remedy for the rift in the relationship between God and man) 6BC 1074 The atonement of Christ is not a mere skillful way to have our sins pardoned; it is a divine remedy for the cure of transgression and the restoration of spiritual health. It is the Heaven-ordained means by which the righteousness of Christ may be not only be upon us but in our hearts Page 58 of 177

and characters (Letter 406, 1906). The atonement of Christ is the divine remedy for the cure of transgression, (a condition which we discovered for ourselves in the last study) and the restoration of spiritual health. So how do we administer the remedy? The answer is we take it just as we would any other remedy – we apply it and take it Let’s first come to our Bible to define the remedy of the atonement. We first need to understand what the atonement is before we can apply it. from 5: 8-11 In the margin the word atonement is transcribed as reconciliation. Reconciliation occurs between two parties when they engage in the mending of a rift? In our last study The Fall of Man, we identified that a rift had taken place between God and man. AT-ONE-MENT Genesis 3:7-10 The wonderful unity that was once in place between God and man became severed. A rift was created through one man’s sin. The rift is on man's side. Isaiah 59:1,2 Our iniquities and our sins have separated and hid His face from us, that He will not hear. The impression is on our part that God does not hear us. Colossians 1:19-22 In our mind God was an enemy, but through Jesus He wants to show us the reconciliation process. Where does this process begin? Observe verse 21, “and you that were sometime alienated” Where does this separation, alienation and perception of God as an enemy take place? In your mind! This is where the rift takes place – in the mind by wicked works. Through that activity it was the mind of man that regarded God as his enemy to fear because God was a perceptibly more powerful foe. This is why Adam and Eve chose to flee instead of fight. But God showed himself in no wise to be their enemy? Let’s read it in Ezekiel 33:10, 11, was He the enemy? Did He want them to die because they had segregated themselves from Him? He says in the day you eat thereof you will surely die because this is what is going to happen - you will fall into this terrible attitude towards me but my attitude towards you hasn’t changed. Our state of mind needs to be dealt with by the blood of the Cross (verse 20) Page 59 of 177

Compare these verses with from 5:8-11. Ezekiel 33:10, 11 While we were yet sinners and enemies toward God in our mind God sent His only son to atone for us. This is God’s attitude toward sinners. Compare these verses with John 3:16 God provides the remedy (drawing us to Him, showing He is not our enemy) John 3:16 He placed Christ’s atonement into our proximity because He does not show Himself to be an enemy. He came and loved us and gave us His Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, because He does not want the death of the wicked but he wants them to have everlasting life. Ministry of Healing, p161 (The grace of our Father) The Lord God through Jesus Christ holds out His hand all the day long in invitation to the sinful and fallen. He will receive all. He welcomes all. It is His glory to pardon the chief of sinners. He will take the prey from the mighty, He will deliver the captive, He will pluck the brand from the burning. He will lower the golden chain of His mercy to the lowest depths of human wretchedness, and lift up the debased soul contaminated with sin. {MH 161.3} p 162 Every human being is the object of loving interest to Him who gave His life that He might bring men back to God. Souls guilty and helpless, liable to be destroyed by the arts and snares of Satan, are cared for as a shepherd cares for the sheep of his flock. {MH 162.1} 2 Corinthians 5:18,19 We are the ones who were estranged from God and yet He commends His love to us. God is the one who provides Jesus Christ and then gives to us an activity, the ministry of reconciliation. He gives us this activity so that we who are so estranged from Him may be engaged in an activity of reconciliation and of atonement. God doesn’t need to appease His heart toward us - it is man who needs to appease and change his heart towards God. We need to exercise reconciliation John 12:32 God was in Christ and man ran away from him, but when Jesus was on the cross Page 60 of 177

and lifted up, that very action of reconciliation drew all those that were running away from Him and were afraid of Him. So He will draw them to Himself and reconcile and atone for them. It was His act of At-One-Ment which makes the difference to the one who feels like they are an enemy of God. Ephesians 2:13,14 God gave to us his Son Jesus Christ so that the barrier spanning the abyss between us could be removed. After the fall of man our minds became locked into a certain mould of thinking. The atonement had to be powerful enough that it could alter a heavily engrained mental transaction in our mind. In the remedial process God has given us the deep mental activity or the atonement to affect our state of mind toward him. It was already very powerful to discover that the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit are three separate persons and yet they are one. This is one of the deep mind activities God had given us to remedy our mind. In John 17, the at-one-ment of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, was there and displayed before us in Jesus Christ coming to this earth to achieve atonement of our mind to God. John 17:21-23 The above scripture tells us something very profound here, that the atonement has already been gazed at and that our mind has already been affected towards God. This is the remedy to affect my mind so that I may harmonize with God. In Ezekiel 15-21 the beautiful oneness of the fabric of the heavenly intelligences is displayed right before us and the possibility of this kind of atonement may be ours through the word of reconciliation and through the commitment that God has invited us to. Ezekiel 1:15-21 The above scripture is a beautiful demonstration of absolute atonement and absolute unity. Here we have the vision of several creatures and their wheels within wheels working in such an intimate sophistry that when one creature moves, the other creatures move in harmony with it. This is what Jesus came to reveal to mankind, that the precious unity of the Godhead makes the whole plan of God come to pass. We have the atonement through the throne of God. John 5:19 As the Father moves, the Son moves, what the Father does, the Son does --the Son can do nothing of himself. This is the picture of the at-one-ment and it is this oneness that God wants to affect in us who have fallen out of this unity. It is Page 61 of 177

only by beholding the renewing power of the atonement that our minds may become changed to think and move together as one. Colossians 1 reveals that without the application of the atonement we are in a segregated and alienated state from God and each other. How then may the cohesive beauty of the atonement be produced in our lives? Colossians 1: 21,22 We are sinners, and alienated, so by what method are we reconciled? Where was the atonement to be impacted and achieved? It was through the activity that was to take place in His flesh through death so that through that enactment we might be presented holy, unblamable and unreprovable in His sight. Atonement is in the nature of Christ. As His flesh died, it was to present us as unblameable and holy and pure in His sight. Ephesians 2:13-16 Where did He make the one new man? In Himself. The atonement, the reconciliation, was to take place in the body of His flesh. He who is the Word, the Second Person of the Godhead was to come and enter into an atonement with us in the body of His flesh and there in that enactment in partaking with us in the body of our flesh was the atonement, the remedy for our mind and our being to be achieved. He came so very close to us, and was so at one with us, that our terrible condition of sin, and our fear of sin and death because of sin could be actually ingested inside of Him and combined with His God divine nature. God and man were in one body on the cross. Hebrews 2:6-11 So that’s where the atonement takes place. Jesus who is God became one with us in His flesh and blood - He took part of the same. Jesus in the body of His flesh and His blood became at one with us for the purpose of delivering us from the very fear that caused Adam and Eve to run away. He partook of sinful humanity and was made to be sin for us that our minds might be affected by this process and reconciled back to God.

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2 Corinthians 5:21 Here is the atonement and the remedy that we are to contemplate and ingest into our mind. Through the atoning process we are able to rediscover God’s abounding love toward us that our hearts might well up with love again. We are fallen and Jesus came to become one with us. He was made to be sin for us so that we might be made righteous in Him. Everything we have studied about becoming like God is to take place in Jesus Christ the man. This is the remedy for the deplorable, hopeless condition which has estranged us from God. Understanding our fallen condition we now need to apply the binding agent of Christ Jesus in the atonement to heal our sinsick minds

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10 JESUS THE MAN As we gaze upon Jesus the man, we now go deeper into the subject of the atonement principle through the study of God’s word to discover how Jesus became at one with us to cure our sinful condition. Jesus demonstrated the atone-ment in the embodiment of his own sinful flesh because in him dwelt both the divine and human nature. And this is also the ingredient of everyone who is re-born of the Spirit. Ezek 33:10 Is this our anguish, that like Israel of old we will never attain to holiness? If we really are in such a deplorable condition what hope do we have of becoming holy as God is holy? In our previous study we learned that the remedy to this problem was contained in the atonement of Jesus Christ. When we behold Christ and behold God, instead of him posing a threat to us, he comes to us in an endearing manner to endear our hearts so that we would stop fleeing from him. Let’s turn now to 2 Corinthians 5:21 to see how He does this 2 Corinthians 5:21 What did God do to reach the hearts and minds of those who misunderstand Him? He placed the powerful activity of the atonement in front of them, the story of Jesus. But how did God reconcile himself to us? And what ministry did he give us? 2Corinthians 5:18,19 We see from the above scripture that God doesn’t stand there condemning us for the sin we are so prone to committing against him. Instead he brings Jesus Christ into our close proximity and reconciles us to Himself in that process. Further more, he give us a ministry, the ministry of reconciliation. Ponder it. Think about this reconciling aspect that God has proposed to you. We couldn’t propose anything. We were running away from God according to His picture of Adam and Eve. We were also incapable of generating anything that could cause us to go back to God. But He followed it up, and actually followed us right into the very experience of being made sin for us, in Jesus Christ. So the ministry of reconciliation is something that transpires in Jesus Christ. But where in Jesus Christ does the atonement actually takes place.

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Colossians 1:21-22 The second person of the Godhead has provided an area of reconciliation for us, an area of meditation in Jesus Christ for those who are alienated in their mind. That by beholding the body of His flesh and what he did when he died to present us a changed people, we would engage in the activity of reconciling ourselves back to God. Ephesians 2:13,15,16 In Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off, alienated, are made nigh by the blood of Christ – this is the ministry of reconciliation. Here is presented the understanding that we must gain by exploring the ministry of reconciliation in his Son. God has committed to us the activity to ponder and to explore the scene of what happened in Jesus Christ? He broke down the middle wall of partition to those who are alienated from God in their mind. And in the body of his flesh he made available to us the remedy to deal with sin. This is further explained in… Ephesians 2:8-10 In the process of exploring Jesus in the body of His flesh and the death that He had to suffer on the cross, we find the method by which we may become reconciled back to God in our minds? This is the mind activity that causes us to become created in Jesus Christ unto good works. In Philippians we follow the process that the second person of the Godhead, The Word, undertook to become at one with humanity in the ministry of his flesh. Philippians 2:6-8. (Talking of Jesus here.) Here was the Word of God. He was in the form of God, equal with God, yet he did not regard it robbery to be equal with God. In other words he did not regard it as something to struggle to gain, or rob for himself. What did he do instead? In this passage of scripture we see how The Word, the second person of the Godhead became at one with humanity to reconcile us back to God. He let go of his lofty position in heaven next to God to become fashioned as a man. But he humbled himself lower still in that He made himself of no reputation and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This is the element of the process of reconciliation. When the Word became fashioned as a man, a human body was prepared for him? Page 65 of 177

Luke 1:30,31 Mary did not actually know a man that she should be pregnant. But the angel said to Mary, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee and therefore something is going to be born inside of you by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit was going to be the contributor of the male element. And so a body was prepared for Jesus in a fashion that was most “constricting” The Upward Look p90. Christ, at an infinite cost, by a painful process, mysterious to angels as well as to men, assumed humanity. Hiding his divinity, laying aside his glory, he was born a babe in Bethlehem. In human flesh he lived the law of God. Through the workings of the Holy Spirit, The Word, through a painful process, was constricted to a tiny seed and implanted into the womb of Mary. This tiny seed (the divine) combined with Mary’s ovum (sinful flesh) to form a human embryo. Jesus in his experience found that as he was born, as he grew up, and as his consciousness came to him, that He was fashioned as a man. It’s quite beautiful how this is qualified in the following text. Romans 1:3,4 That was what Mary contributed to the birth of Jesus according to the flesh, the seed of David --- the ovum. So the ingredient of the human seed was the seed of David through the ovum of Mary, The Holy Spirit came upon Mary and contributed the second person of the Godhead. In this painful process the Word of God became constricted to a tiny cell. And what was the result? John 1:14 How meaningful this becomes as you ponder upon how Jesus found Himself in fashion as a man. The word was made flesh by the process of the birth in the woman’s womb. So the Word, the second person of the Godhead was made flesh according to the seed of David. The seed of David was the flesh, and the ingredient of The Holy Spirit was The Word, the divine. Let’s now turn to Hebrews 2:14 to read more about the flesh of Jesus’ that was contributed by the ovum in the womb of Mary? Hebrews 2:14 Page 66 of 177

According to the above scripture we are all partakers of flesh and blood. Every human being on earth is a partaker of the seed of David and Jesus Himself took part of the same. But the flesh condemns us to the death because the wages of sin are death and we are all under sin. Jesus therefore partook of a flesh that naturally dies and He died because of the flesh he partook of which was sinful flesh? Romans 8:3 As a sacrifice for sin, Jesus condemned sin in the flesh “He partook with us of our flesh through the seed of David, through the natural process of birth where the seed of David was combined with the birth through the Holy Spirit, and that flesh was the same that we have that would have to die and no flesh that is not partaker of sin, no flesh that is sinless flesh, can die.” Margin Reading. It is only sinful flesh that can die and so from 8:3 declares that Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh so that he could die or submit himself to die otherwise he couldn’t. We read in Ephesians that Jesus was a combination of the two made one, God and man at one. Galatians 4:4 The terminology of being under the law means being condemned by the law. That’s what the apostle Paul was talking about in the scenario of the Galatians that we are all under the condemnation of the law. And Christ also was made under the law. Galatians 3:1 Every human being that is on earth is cursed because they are all under the curse of the law. But Christ did something to redeem us from this curse Galatians 3:13 So, very emphatically the flesh that was provided for him through Mary was Abraham’s seed, and David’s seed. It was under the law, it was under the curse, and it was sinful flesh through which Jesus could be made. As the scripture 2 Corinthians 5:21 states For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus was made to be sinful flesh so that He could destroy sin in the flesh. He had to have a flesh that was the same as ours and partake of our experiences as Page 67 of 177

expressed in Ezek 33:10 how can we then live when our sins are upon us In Jeremiah 17:1 it says that our sins are very much a part of us for they are written with a pen of iron upon the very fabric of our flesh. Hebrews 2:17 To reconcile us in our minds that are so estranged from him, he was made in all points like we are. There was not a point where he was not equally made in the flesh. And so, he found himself in fashion as a man and continued in the fashion until the point where he obediently submitted to the natural consequences of that flesh. He was made through birth so that he would ultimately be obedient even unto the death of the cross which was the result of the sinful flesh. By His death He was made to be sin for us, and that is why the scripture says He was obedient, even to the death of the cross. He submitted Himself to be made sin for us and die. There is the atonement principle, which if received fully in heart and mind will truly win us back to God in love. We will love him for such a wonderful story that has just been played before us. In Bible Commentary Sr White makes it abundantly clear what we have just been reading in the Bible. 5BC 1081.5-7 When Adam was assailed by the tempter in Eden he was without the taint of sin. He stood in the strength of his perfection before God. All the organs and faculties of his being were equally developed and harmoniously balanced. Adam had no sinful flesh before the fall.Christ, in the wilderness of temptation, stood in Adam’s place to bear the test he failed to endure. Here Christ overcame in the sinner’s behalf, four thousand years after Adam turned his back upon the light of his home. Separated from the presence of God, the human family had been departing every successive generation, farther from the original purity, wisdom, and knowledge which Adam possessed in Eden. Christ bore the sins and infirmities of the race as they existed when He came to the earth to help man. In behalf of the race, with the weaknesses of fallen man upon him, He was to stand the temptations of Satan upon all points wherewith man would be assailed… Praise God for this wonderful, intelligent understanding of how the atonement remedy of Jesus Christ may be practically administered to our lives. Christ conquered sin in the flesh in his life and in his death. He was not only our sin bearer but also a living example of a man, fashioned with sinful human flesh, with the Godhead dwelling inside of Him who conquered sin in the flesh. When we have the divine ingredient of the Holy Spirit working in us, we too may overcome sin in the flesh just as Jesus did. May we take hold of this beautiful story of Jesus and continually play it before our mind’s eye as the cure for our sinsick condition. Page 68 of 177

11 THE RANSOM Under the first angels' message the everlasting gospel is being preached, not just as a gospel but leading to the understanding of judgment. As it says in Revelation 14:7 “Give God the glory, for His hour of judgment is come.” To understand judgment correctly we need to understand the gospel. Therefore we are still exploring this dimension of the gospel under the first angels’ message. As we have seen in the past studies, the atonement, which incorporated Jesus the man, we now focus on the first application of the atonement of Jesus the man in conjunction together with His divine nature and we apply that atonement which is the remedy for the sin-sick soul. This is our first study into the application to sin-sick souls. We observe that man who is sinful is in need of being released from his sinfulness, and that is what the gospel was for. Here we read in 1 Peter 1:18-19 Where we see the necessity for the application of the atonement. Notice verse 18 says “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things,...But with the precious blood of Christ,” (verse 19) Look at the word “redeemed” Jesus, in the gospel came to redeem us, from our vain conversation (sin) So Jesus the man would therefore be understood as being the ransom to redeem us. That is our study today . When we use the word ransom and redeem, we understand clearly that it applies to a situation when someone has been kidnapped and is threatened with death unless somebody pays a ransom. Recall our study on the fall of man. What condition is man under? Let's turn to recapture this condition of fallen man The application of atonement is that sinful man can be ransomed by the atonement. Ransom = the price paid for a captive when kidnapped There is no release until the ransom is paid

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I am a captive Romans 7:14 &15 The condition of this person is he can't do what he wants to do. 17 19 Can we see a captivity here? 21-24 Here is a perfect description of somebody who has been kidnapped. Who doesn't want to be where he is, in need of somebody to redeem him. Captive to the law of sin and threatened with death, because the wages of sin is death. Here is a deplorable condition of captivity and a ransom is needed. Is there any possibility? Who shall deliver me? Who will pay a ransom? Lucifer holds the inhabitants of this world captive Isaiah 49: 24 & 25 (compare with from 7:14 & 15) Isaiah 14:12-17 There is a statement that though we are captives and desire deliverance, the lawful captive shall be delivered, and it has to do with someone who is mighty. As we read this scripture in Isaiah 49, we see there is someone mighty holding us to ransom. Isaiah 14, we read - that opened not the house of his prisoners” This world is the house of Satan's prisoners, he is the mighty one that holds us in a state of captivity. The possibility of release is beautifully expressed in Revelation chapter five Who can release the captives? Revelation 5:1-9 There is a book (history) that needs to be released. Here is a prophecy of the unrolling of the scroll of history. This is after Jesus had come to this earth. As the history was yet to unfold, there was a question of who was able to open this history. The answer came, through Jesus Christ. Why was He worthy? Because He was slain and has redeemed us to God by His blood. Someone was found. This is echoed in Job 33:24

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Wonderful news. The people who are captives of Satan, in captivity to sin, doomed to death, needing to be redeemed, a ransom was found, and according to Revelation it was Jesus Christ who was the ransom. Isaiah 61:1 As Jesus spoke of this when He was on earth. Jesus read this when He was in Nazareth. “To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Here it is, Jesus is the one who is going to release the captives. We are in captivity to sin in the kingdom of Satan, and a ransom is found. We need to understand the way this ransom releases us because our captivity was not merely outside of us, but in our very mind, and the mind has to be reached. The function of this person who has come to ransom (how does the ransom work?) Colossians 1:21 Where was our problem of captivity? “In your mind by wicked works” The mind needs to be released. It is the mind that is crying out “what's wrong, what's happening to me?” We must become free in mind first. That is precisely why Jesus spoke the way He did in the gospel of John John 8:31 & 32 He had just been speaking to the Jews, who couldn't see that they were in captivity. “The truth shall make you free” What is going to redeem us, what is going to release us, where? In our mind, by knowing the truth, as we embrace the truth of the then we shall be made free. 34-36 The truth has an effect on the mind and this releases the mind from captivity. The freedom we need to find is by knowing the truth, and the truth has to be of the one who is the ransom who sets us free. “The Son shall make you free” Let us follow very carefully the function of this ransom, that sets us free in our mind, by knowing the truth. Titus 2:14 Our Saviour gave Himself, that He might redeem us. from iniquity. The functioning of the ransom is being introduced. Let's follow this thought through in Matthew 20:28 Page 71 of 177

Jesus didn't just come to do something magical, He Himself is the ransom that is paid to redeem us. Jesus Christ the man, the second person of the Godhead gave Himself to be the ransom. To what degree did He give Himself? To the fullest condition in which we are bound. 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made Christ to be sin, in the same prison house we are in. He was placed in the hands of Lucifer (the strong man). He placed Himself into the very captivity in which we find ourselves. God created the ransom for us. Luke 4:6 Lucifer comes to Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus was in the power of Lucifer. This fallen angel lifted up Jesus and flew Him to the top of a mountain. Lucifer shows Jesus the man his power. “I can give you this as long as you worship me” Matthew 12:29 Jesus binds the strong man. This strong man did not want to let go of his captive. Jesus is in the house of the strong man, but first He has to bind the strong man before He can spoil his goods. How does Jesus bind the strong man? John 14:30 Jesus is coming close to His showdown at the cross. Jesus came to bind the strong man. He came as a human. While He was in the realm of the strong man, he was going to try to get Him, to prevent Him from being released with us. Lucifer could not find anything in Jesus that he could hold Him. Here is the exact explanation of this thought: Hebrews 2:14 & 15 Jesus came into the strong man's house, subject to death, made to be sin, so that He could die and through death He might destroy him that had the power of death (the devil). By this ransom activity we can be delivered. Jesus came in the garb of the prisoner, within the human flesh. Within this garb lay the ransom, the treasure that would pay to release the sinner The wealth is inside the package when the ransom is paid. Jesus came in the package of sinful flesh.

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The description of the treasure inside the garb of humanity that had to die is found in: Colossians 2:9 In this human garb, the same flesh doomed to die, was the treasure of all the fullness of the Godhead. What a package of treasure was Jesus Christ, the ransom! Romans 8:31 & 32 With Jesus, He, God, who loves us, wants to save us, provides for us the ransom, His own Son that was able to come right into the kidnappers house. He did not spare Him, but delivered Him up for us all. Inside of Jesus was the great treasure, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 5BC:1127 par 1 “The whole treasure of heaven was poured out in one gift to save fallen man. He brought into His human nature all the life-giving energies that human beings will need and must receive. Wondrous combination of man and God! He might have helped His human nature to withstand the inroads of disease by pouring from His divine nature vitality and undecaying vigor to the human. But He humbled Himself to man's nature. He did this that the Scripture might be fulfilled; and the plan was entered into by the Son of God, knowing all the steps in His humiliation,” Here is the point, He was a human in complete reality, yet inside the human being which would die, it was a flesh that had to die. He could have with His divine nature withstood the inroads of disease and dead, but no, He surrendered Himself into the captivity and death of sin and brought the divine ingredient, the treasure, into the thralldom of the kidnapper. Profound. Although His body in the likeness of sinful flesh, inside that sinful flesh was something that prevented the sinful flesh from holding Him. Either to sin or holding Him in death. Acts 2:24 It was not possible for the pains of death to hold Him. Neither sin nor death could hold Him. Let us examine as He goes through the experience of this...the truth will set you free. When Jesus was hanging on the cross what did He say? Matthew 27:46 This statement was in prophecy in: Page 73 of 177

Psalms 22:1 & 2 What was He suffering? Alienation from God, where we are. The same as us when we feel forsaken in our sin. Why was He forsaken? Isaiah 59:1&2 Your iniquities have hid His face from you. As He was hanging there being made sin for us, He experienced the alienation that sin had made and the captivity that humanity is in their fallen condition. This description of this experience is beautifully portrayed here that we do not become doubtful about the fact that Jesus paid the ransom for us: DA:755 - 757 “The spotless Son of God hung upon the cross, His flesh lacerated with stripes; those hands so often reached out in blessing, nailed to the wooden bars; those feet so tireless on ministries of love, spiked to the tree; that royal head pierced by the crown of thorns; those quivering lips shaped to the cry of woe. And all that He endured--the blood dropsthat flowed from His head, His hands, His feet, the agony that racked His frame, and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of His Father's face-speaks to each child of humanity, declaring, It is for thee that the Son of God consents to bear this burden of guilt; for thee He spoils the domain of death, and opens the gates of Paradise. He who stilled the angry waves and walked the foam-capped billows, who made devils tremble and disease flee, who opened blind eyes and called forth the dead to life,--offers Himself upon the cross as a sacrifice, and this from love to thee. He, the Sin Bearer, endures the wrath of divine justice, and for thy sake becomes sin itself. ” Before we go on, just come to 1SM 253.3 to enlarge this concept of becoming sin itself Behold Him making the wants, the trials, the griefs and sufferings of sinful men His own” He's experiencing it as His own “Can we not take home the lesson that God endured these sufferings and bruises of soul in consequence of sin?” As He was hanging there the description goes on in Desire of Ages, watch Him dealing with the problem DA: 756 “Suddenly the gloom lifted from the cross, and in clear, trumpet like tones, Page 74 of 177

that seemed to resound throughout creation, Jesus cried, "It is finished." "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." A light encircled the cross, and the face of the Saviour shone with a glory like the sun. He then bowed His head upon His breast, and died.” Now notice what it was that caused this to happen. “Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father's acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father's favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor.” Take this in. Jesus suffered the terrible experience of making the woes and sufferings of man's sin His own, and when He was feeling the total segregation of the Father from Himself, He had to conquer, He had to break that prison house. When you and I are in such a condition, as we read “Who can save me? I cannot release my burdened soul”, but Jesus with the same segregation from the Father reveals His total trust and shows to us the divine trust, selflessness and reliance that comes from His own character and He casts Himself totally into the conscious awareness of God's amazing love and care and breaks through the gloom of hopelessness, there is the breaking of the power of the captivity of sin By faith Christ was victor. Let's explore this release in: Luke 23:46 He finally let go and died. Psalms 40: 1-4 Trust God that He will keep us through death. Relying on God's redeeming action. The Father responded to His cry and lifted Him up. Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the LORD. Our mind is released as we look at Jesus struggling with the same mind struggle, and my heart is released. I, like Jesus, shall trust in the LORD. The transaction Page 75 of 177

SC:62 “We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. He lived on earth amid trials and temptations such as we have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now He offers to take our sins and give us His righteousness. If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.” So the captivity of man in Christ is broken., the price is paid. this with these scriptures:

Let's rehearse

1 Peter 2:24 Here it is the death of Jesus with my sins came and died like this and rose again. As He die He took over my sins in His flesh and released us from that. Romans 6: 5-7 My death is transferred to Him and if I let His death be transferred back to me. He died with my sin. And by beholding that we can rejoice. He was made to be my sin, although dead, the life within Him could not be held in the grave. Why? Because we read this reality in: 2 Timothy 1:9 & 10 He has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Inside this body (sinful flesh) packed inside that was all the treasure of the Godhead bodily. He broke the fetters because it could not hold Him down. Out of the darkness came the light, He can bring light out of the darkness because he came into the darkness, and inside the darkness lay life eternal and the glory of immortality and it burst the darkness. Through death He could bring immortality to light. Hosea 13:14 The ransom was Jesus and He came to ransom us from the grave. The One who was the fullness of the Godhead had to be placed into the grave and the grave could not hold Him This is beautifully expressed in: Psalms 49:15 Join this statement to : Isaiah 26:19 Page 76 of 177

Jesus relied upon the power from the Father which came from Him. Jesus together with us was in the ground. Together with His dead body shall arise out of death. 1John 5:11 & 12 This is the connecting link. Our redemption is found in our connection with Jesus and His connection with us in faith. Otherwise we are still hopelessly subject to death. When the divine Godhead through Jesus Christ is connected with us then we have redemption from the power of sin and death. Every inhabitant on earth has been bought with this price. The second person of the Godhead has been offered us. 1 Timothy 2:3-6 He wants us all to be saved. He gave Himself a ransom. He Himself a ransom. Romans 5:18 Here we have the perfect provision for everyone. What happened to Jesus happens to everyone and everyone who receives this now. Here is the climax of the understanding if I want to be free. You will only benefit if you believe. Romans 3:22-25 We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. It is in Christ Jesus that through faith in His blood. Those that do not have this faith and appreciation cannot be saved. John 8:31 “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed” If you don't continue in my word, if we don't know this truth and embrace it and let it become part of us so that Jesus is part of us in the mind, we cannot be released. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you shall be saved.

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12 THE OLD AND NEW COVENANT Father, Son and Holy Spirit are active in bringing about holiness in man. The most relevant function of the second part of the Godhead, Jesus, was that He was made a man and as a man He became our ransom, He paid for the captives under sin and death, by Himself entering into the captivity of sinful flesh which was then entombed in death and by the fact that He was the great I am, the treasure of heaven was inside of Him, He broke the fetters of the captivity of sin and the captivity of the grave. This is beautifully summarised in Hosea 13:14 Jesus destroyed the power of the grave. In today’s research we will deal with our part of the gospel in the light of the ransom. Jesus paid the ransom. What He did was to release us. 1 Peter 18 & 19 What is the consequence of being ransomed? What is our part? TMK: 63.2 Ye are not your own. . . . Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). Will you give back to God that which He has ransomed with the price of His own blood? Will you give Him your reasoning powers; will you set them apart for His glory? They are His; He has bought them with a price. Will you place yourselves in the school of Christ, that your conscience may be enlightened, that it may be a good conscience, a faithful sentinel to guard the highest interests of the soul? Christ has purchased the affections; will you trifle with them, will you pervert them? Will you place them upon unworthy objects, centre them upon human beings and make the creature instead of the Creator your god to worship? Or shall your affections be purified, ennobled, refined, and made to twine about your Creator and Redeemer? We will see in this study how the blood of Jesus will benefit us in the ongoing result of the ransom. There is something for us to do. God claims a throne in each heart. Page 78 of 177

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Will you give back to God that which He has ransomed with His blood? Will you give your reasoning powers for His glory? Will you place yourselves in the school of Christ? Your conscience is a faithful sentinel. 1 Timothy 2:3-6 What He has done for us is to be testified in due time. When the kidnapper has been paid the ransom, you can choose whether you are going to stay there or whether you will leave him. It’s up to the person who has been ransomed to get out of there. Wouldn't it be natural for the person who has been kidnapped to want to do anything for the person who paid the ransom? What can I do, how can I repay him? The whole world is ransomed, but is the whole world saved? The response to being ransomed is: 1. To repay in some way the treasure that the one paying the ransom has paid 2. Escape from captivity Ezekiel 33:11 Isaiah 1:18-20 All our life is now clean, but God needs our co-operation to extract ourselves from captivity. There is an object lesson in the Old Testament in Israel coming out of Egypt to help us understand, so we can learn from their experience. Exodus 19:3-8 Here is the co-operation call for those who trust His ransom. A covenant was made after they were set free. This is the covenant that God is making with those He has redeemed. Will you be obedient? There is an agreement we need to make with God after we have been redeemed. Exodus 19:5 '”.... . and keep my covenant”. Let's come over to Deuteronomy 26:16-18 Page 79 of 177

Here is the covenant He arranged by reasoning with them. The word avouch is a very strong word. God says , because you have made a vow, now I'm going to make a vow too. Because you are going to do all that I say, I am going to take care of you, you are going to be My people. What was their part? The actual principles involved in the covenant. Exodus 24:5-8 As they made that agreement to do as they are told, God developed a very sacred occasion. Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. Blood was gained from the death of a dead animal. The ceremony of the covenant. Blood and death in conjunction with an agreement. When blood was shed in conjunction with a covenant, the covenant becomes a testament ( as in a will when someone dies) Hebrews 9:16 & 17 18-20 God and man reasoned together. The Law was spoken and written, Man understood it and promised God, his avouching and God's avouching was confirmed by blood. (death) What happened? Jeremiah 31:32 This is a different covenant. The covenant of promising God, they broke. Why did God do this? They failed to keep their promise. What was demonstrated in the experience of the Hebrews? They were captive in Egypt. They were in captivity and they thought they were free. Notice, that although they broke that covenant, God did not forsake them. God had an important lesson to bring our of this. This is true captivity; they were still in sin even though God had made their escape. Were they forsaken because they broke the covenant? Jeremiah 31:31-33 No; a new covenant was made This law is in their inward parts (not on stone) Page 80 of 177

Hebrews 8:6 The mediator of a better covenant established on better promises Hebrews 8: 7 & 8 What are the better promises? The fault was with the people. Hebrews 8: 10 The law is in their mind and heart Compare this scripture with Jeremiah 31:31 This new covenant also needed blood. Hebrews 9:14-15 Jesus' death was for the transgression of those who broke the first covenant 2 Corinthians 3:3 To separate the Old and New Testaments makes us think salvation is different, but NO ransom is experienced through failing to keep our promise and taking hold on God's promise in the new covenant Galatians 3:22-25 The Old Testament promise is just as relevant for us today as it was for the children of Israel. We can benefit from it, just as they were able to benefit from the new covenant. God's Amazing Grace: 142 The covenant that God made with His people at Sinai is to be our refuge and defence....This covenant is of just as much force today as it was when the Lord made it with ancient Israel....

This is the pledge that God's people are to make in these last days. Their acceptance with God depends on a faithful fulfilment of the terms of their agreement with Him. God includes in His covenant all who will obey Him. To all who will do justice and judgment, keeping their hand from doing any evil, the promise is, "Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an Page 81 of 177

everlasting name, that shall not be cut off" (Isa. 56:5). The Father sets His love upon His elect people who live in the midst of men. These are the people whom Christ has redeemed by the price of His own blood; and because they respond to the drawing of Christ, through the sovereign mercy of God, they are elected to be saved as His obedient children. Upon them is manifested the free grace of God, the love wherewith He hath loved them. Everyone who will humble himself as a little child, who will receive and obey the Word of God with a child's simplicity will be among the elect of God. To make God's grace our own, we must act our part. The Lord does not propose to perform for us either the willing or the doing. His grace is given to work in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort. Let the human agent compare his life with the life of Christ. ...Let him imitate the example of Him who lived out the law of Jehovah, who said, "I have kept my father's commandments." Those who follow Christ will be continually looking into the perfect law of liberty, and through the grace given them by Christ, will fashion the character according to the divine requirements. We are to rely entirely on God's promises Psalms 105:6-10 The new covenant is the everlasting covenant Jeremiah 32:38-40 God will not turn away from them; I will put my fear in their hearts... thru the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

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13 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES Jeremiah 31:33 “But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people“. The everlasting covenant. The old covenant was administered by the shedding of the blood of animals, but not the new covenant. Hebrews 9:14 & 15 “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions [that were] under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” 2Corinthians 3:3-5 “[Forasmuch as ye are] manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. 3:4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency [is] of God;” Our emotions and intellect are touched by the redemption through Christ, therefore our sufficiency is not of ourselves, but of God. How is the law of God transcribed on our hearts? Psalm 40:7-10 “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [it is] written of me, 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law [is] within my heart. Page 83 of 177

40:9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. 40:10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.” The sufferings of Christ Psalms 40: 11-12 “Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me. 40:12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.” The Lord has shown us beforetime the ministry of the Messiah. Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” OLD TESTAMENT prophecy Daniel 9:24-27 Isaiah 61:1-3 Isaiah 7:14-16 Micah 5:2 Hosea 11:1 Isaiah 50: 4-7 Isaiah 42:1-7 Isaiah 49:1-5 Psalm 69: 1-21 Psalm 22: 1-16, 18 Psalm 40:6-13 Isaiah 53 Lamentations 1:12-14 Psalm 40:1-4 Zechariah 13:6-7

FULFILMENT Luke 24:26-27 John 1:41 Matthew 1:23 Matthew 2:1 Matthew 2:14 & 15 Mark 1:35 John 8: 3- 11 Revelation 1:16; Matthew 17:5; John 12:28 John 7:5; Matthew 27: 33-50 Luke 23:32-37 John 4:34 John 19:-37 John 19:25-30 John 17: 1-5; Luke 22: 43; Mark 14:43 - 36 John 12:12-19; John 19:19, 25-27,36-37

Romans 8:24-25 “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it].” Page 84 of 177

Hebrews 6:13-19 “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation [is] to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed [it] by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which [it was] impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which [hope] we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;” We have consolation that He is in heaven interceding for us because we know that prophecy is fulfilled. Jesus still feels what he felt on the cross now.

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14 THE SANCTUARY The gospel of Jesus Christ the Messiah is to do a specific work : atonement. To make an atonement for we who have been estranged from God. This is beautifully expressed here in Isaiah 61: 1 & 2 Every being on this planet has been dealt with by the atonement of Jesus Christ, His messiahship, that is what He has come here to achieve. As we read the Bible it is not only a report of what Jesus did in hindsight, but more clearly even in foresight in the Messianic prophecies that we studied last week. We saw that the Messianic prophecies in foresight were more detailed than that which was in hindsight. The thoughts of Jesus were expressed, the details, His work as a Messiah in experimental reality. Let's look at these scriptures that express what His Messiahship involved Romans 5:10 Reconciled by His death and saved by His life Hebrews 2:17 & 18 The Messiahship has to do with His priestly work Hebrews 4:14-16 Jesus came from heaven to earth as our mediator to pay the ransom We have a person that understands us and can now go to Heaven as our priest, someone who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. So His work of Messiahship had to take place in relation to His experience here on earth and then go to heaven to become our priest to be able to plead our case effectively because He himself is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He had come down to experience that, to die, then to become a priest for us. 1 Timothy 2: 5 & 6 We have someone between us and God in the anointed position, just like the high priest was anointed in the Old Testament. Here is another reference to the ransom.

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Here we see a three-fold labour in the Messiahship. We saw from the prophecies of the Messiahship in our last study the detail of His experience in suffering with us, the death and then the resurrection. Now we are looking at another aspect of Messianic prophecies that include not only His experience here on earth but in the priesthood as well. This is where we come to Luke 24: 25-27 the facility of the second person of the Godhead. He taught them out of the prophets, but do you notice also, He began with Moses. 44-45 ALL things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, not just the prophets, not just the psalms, but the law of Moses as a prophetic description of things that must be fulfilled. What is He actually looking at, at the very centre of the law of Moses? This is the prophetic picture of Jesus in the sanctuary, this is the subject of our study today. Here it is in Exodus 25: 8 & 9 We have studied at length Jesus as the one by whom we can find our way to become the sons of God in past studies. To become the sons of God, a way has been made for us and He (God) wanted to dwell among us. We who have been estranged from God, can be united with God by only one way. Let's come over to John 14: 1-6 In our research of the way to come to the Father, we have seen that it was through the activity of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Jesus here says “you are going to have an eternal abode with me. You know the way”. Why should they know the way? You see how beautifully the scriptures help us to understand this subject. Psalms 77:13 Jesus is the way. The sanctuary of the Hebrews was a prophetic picture of Jesus. As we study the sanctuary we will learn of Jesus. He went to the law of Moses because in the law of Moses was the way to the Father in Heaven. Jesus said there we can't get Page 87 of 177

back to the Father but by Him. That is the way, the sanctuary which is a direct prophetic representation of Jesus. There is no other way but Jesus. It is this way that can be studied in the sanctuary to describe to us the methodology of salvation better than the New Testament can. That's why the Old Testament scriptures are so important. When people lay the Old Testament scriptures down and look only at the New Testament they have no understanding of the actual way of activity. So as we explore the sanctuary, we can see a beautiful little summary of it in Hebrews 9: 1-5 Here is a quick sketch. This is the sanctuary that is most relevant to our study of the way. As we explore the sanctuary, see if we can see the activities of the Messiah here. The sanctuary that Moses was commissioned to build was something that was connected with a pattern. We will often be challenged by the shallow readers of the Bible by the lack of understanding that they have of the earthly Hebrew sanctuary and its connection with the heavenly one. Follow very carefully the language here expressed. Exodus 25: 9, 40 Most people when they read this say Moses was given a plan, a pattern, and they simply conclude that he wasn't shown any more than a draft of what he was supposed to build, but if you compare that with Hebrews 8: 4 & 5 This is the pattern that was meant there . The pattern of THE tabernacle (dwelling, see margin Exodus 25:9). A shadow of heavenly things. The pattern that Moses was to build the sanctuary after was the heavenly one that the earthly one was to be a shadow of. :verse 2 Jesus is the minister of the sanctuary of the true tabernacle This connection of scripture is very important to impregnate into your memory because one day when your are challenged on what you believe on the sanctuary, you need to remember this scripture. This connection here between Exodus 25 and Hebrews 8 to identify that the earthly sanctuary was a copy of the true and heavenly sanctuary, that the LORD pitched and not man. When we look at this subject in reference to the Messiah we look at the sin offering that Jesus came to offer Himself to be, death, revealed in the earthly sanctuary in Page 88 of 177

Leviticus 6: 25 & 26 The sin offering was offered in the court of the earthly sanctuary, which was eaten by the priest Hebrews 9: 26-28 The prophetic picture of Jesus as the sin offering/sacrifice , we are reconciled by death. Here is a distinctive expression of sin offering. The lamb , the sin offering, the people's sins were confessed upon it and laid upon it and here Jesus was offered to bear the sins of many. He received the sins just like the sin offering did. This is what is meant by Jesus offered to bear the sins of many. This is the death side of it. By His death we are reconciled. After the sin offering was sacrificed what happened? The death took place of the sacrifice. Something was done : Leviticus 4:1-6 The priest that was anointed, the anointed one. When the sin offering was sacrificed (if you read chapter 4 there were various sin offerings and they were all handled in a slightly different way but they all carried the same message) Here the blood was taken and sprinkled within the veil of the sanctuary, with others it was eaten only and taken in the body of the priest, but the issue was when the sin offering was sacrificed the anointed priest took over and transferred the work. Hebrews 8: 1 & 2 Here is the anointed One, the Messiah. What did He continue to do? The anointed priest was a minister in the earthly sanctuary. Here Jesus the Messiah went to the heavenly sanctuary, there to minister what the priest did here on earth in the earthly sanctuary. Hebrews 9:24 He went into the courtyard. Jesus entered into the Holy Place (the heavenly one) 11-14 Very vividly here it is making referenced that as the sin offering was handled here Jesus was the sin offering there in the heavenly work The sin offering was Jesus. He died but when HE finished dying He no longer Page 89 of 177

remained the sin offering, now He becomes the high priest, the Anointed One who takes of the sin offering and takes it to be dealt with in the heavenly sanctuary. Where was the blood sprinkled? Before the veil. Let's come to Hebrews 10: 19-22 The new way, not the symbolic way. If you really meditate on these scriptures, there needs to be not a single person on earth any more who should have to feel bereft of hope,. For us who look at Jesus in His true work of priesthood and of the sacrifice for the sin offering, our lives can become full of joy instead of being burdened down by our sinful condition. This is what needs to be understood. We observe that Jesus left this planet to go as the anointed priest to finish the work of our salvation there. Where did the priest go? Where the candlestick and the table of shewbread were. Is there such a department in the heavenly sanctuary? Revelation 1: 10-13 He sees Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary after He has been resurrected and being translated, dressed like an ordinary priest. Walking where the candlesticks are. Hebrews 6: 19 & 20 Here is where our great comfort is. Jesus has entered into the veil in the sanctuary. As we read it in Revelation He has entered to where the candlesticks are. The work of atonement was beautifully summarised by Jesus becoming one with us and as the sin offering experienced the death that sin had created, but as our high priest, Jesus ate of the sin offering ( it came part of him), taking it into the sanctuary. My sin is taken into Himself to the Father. Here the atonement is summarised. We have this hope that He has taken my sin in Himself as the way to the Father to have that sin perfectly cleansed in the heavenly sanctuary. If He went there and did that work among the candlesticks in the first department, the atonement continues, there is more detail in the Hebrew sanctuary that completes the atonement. The atonement was not finished at the cross. The atonement is not finished until ALL has been fulfilled which was written in the law of Moses. Hebrews 9: 6 & 7 Leviticus 16: 31 & 33 Page 90 of 177

The annual day of atonement. The priest taking the sacrifice to the first tabernacle only served to render the sanctuary in need of cleansing. Now on the day of atonement the completion of the atonement was to take place. The tabernacle and the altar and the priests and people were to have all their sins resolved once and for all. Leviticus 23: 27 It is a day of atonement once a year. If that was part of the Hebrew sanctuary activity, did Jesus our priest in the heavenly sanctuary also do the same? Now we come to the understanding of the tabernacle and the tabernacle that we read in Hebrews. Let's come to Revelation 3: 7 & 8 Jesus moved from one tabernacle to another tabernacle (in the heavenly sanctuary) 1833-1844 the period of Philadelphia. Jesus is saying “I am moving, I am opening, for us to go through,” as the high priest did in the earthly sanctuary. What id he opening. When someone says “Here is the door, I am opening it for you” What message do you pick up? You are meant to go through. This is what Jesus said, and what is He referring to> Just what the high priest did in the earthly sanctuary, He is doing in the heavenly one. He opens and no mans shuts and shuts and no man opens It’s written in Revelation 11:19 The temple of God opened in heaven. In the earthly sanctuary the ark of the covenant was in the second tabernacle. Here in the heavenly sanctuary (the true sanctuary) there was seen an open tabernacle which was the opening of the temple where the ark of the testament is. Here it is spelled right out for us: Revelation 15:5 When we realised the language that was used, here Jesus says I have set before you an open door. So in the course of His ministry there comes a point in time when the temple in heaven is opened which is the opening into the Most Holy place where the tabernacle of the testimony was opened. Page 91 of 177

That is simply chronicled in Daniel 7: 8-10 Jesus in the heavenly throne room changes position. He beheld the events of the earth till the time of the thrones being cast down in the heavenly sanctuary. The thrones were set up for the Ancient of Days sitting. Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary comes and says I have set before you an open door, where the ark of the covenant which is the throne of God is revealed and look what He does in 13 & 14 Jesus says I have set before you an open door and I am going through the open door myself and I am going to appear before the Ancient of Days. This is nothing else but the fulfilment of the day of atonement. Daniel 8:14 1844 The sanctuary is cleansed. Here is a prophecy where Jesus changed position in heaven, the time of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. Why did the heavenly sanctuary need cleansing? In the exercise of the atonement, Jesus took our sins into the heavenly sanctuary. All our sins are recorded there . The heavenly sanctuary became polluted with the pictures of the sins of men Deuteronomy 32: 32-34 the sins of the church are among the treasures in heaven. This is talking about the church of God, Israel. To verify this in another scripture we Isaiah 65:6 compare with Daniel 7:10 His treasures are His creatures. When you study into the sanctuary in heaven with its living instruments to take record of everything in the universe, there are recorded in the creatures these ugly things, does that not need cleansing? To help us appreciate the pictures among His treasures we read this statement;

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5BC: 1085 “God's law reaches the feelings and motives, as well as the outward acts. It reveals the secrets of the heart, flashing light upon things before buried in darkness. God knows every thought, every purpose, every plan, every motive. The books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity. God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing. By His law He measures the character of every man. As the artist transfers to the canvas the features of the face, so the features of each individual character are transferred to the books of heaven. God has a perfect photograph of every man's character, and this photograph He compares with His law. He reveals to man the defects that mar his life, and calls upon him to repent and turn from sin”. There are the pictures of the corrupt behaviours of the character of the people in heaven, not just the things they have done, but the things they would have done if they had opportunity. It makes me tremble and go back to the LORD to deal with the things that He reveals to us the things that mar our life, He calls upon us to repent so these ugly pictures can be cleansed out of the records. We also read further detail in GC: 421 “ As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded But before this can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation--a work of judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem His people; for when He comes, His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works. Revelation 22:12. ”. In conclusion we need to be participant in the work of the Messiah. We are to have the blood of Jesus applied, our sins given to Him, He in His Messianic activity takes our sins by the fact that He has died with our sins, He takes the sacrificial blood and takes it to heaven there working in the 1st apartment , finishing the work in the second apartment so that we might be totally one with Him. What He is doing is not just what He is doing in the heavenly sanctuary, as He said I have set before you an open door, participate. Page 93 of 177

Hebrews 9:11-14 If we participate with Jesus, our conscience will be purged from dead works to serve the living God. This is the full and complete work of atonement in the Most Holy Place that commenced in 1844. This work if we participate with Jesus, let Him finish the work with you, will purge me from the dead works I may be in some way holding on to. 1 John 3: 2 & 3 This is the purpose of the exercise. We shall see Him as He is, without sin and we will be like Him through this work. 2 Peter 3:14 We will be found without spot. Here is the final conclusion of the atonement. Completely purged, completely pure. This is beautifully concluded in Jude: 24 & 25 He can present us faultless, why? Because of what He has done in the atoning Messianic activity. It is so comprehensive that all of us who embrace this can be totally dealt with right through to the day of atonement; every defect that mars the picture and calls us to repent on the day of atonement so that nothing is left in us, neither spot nor wrinkle. How does He do it? Through this beautiful picture of atonement, as we studied right in the beginning, Jesus being a human being with us. Doesn't that purge my conscience, and that what He is doing in the heavenly sanctuary as our priest. If our minds are occupied with the three angels' messages, the first angel and all the connective links, how can we go and sin again? If we don't concentrate completely on this cause we will miss the whole experience and we will forget. Only by revising and keeping it fresh in my mind can I be part of that scene.

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15 THE MARRIAGE SUPPER God is more than one individual, but the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who offer themselves as facilities to those who need help as man has fallen and become unholy. Through the facilities of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit we can become holy as God is holy. Man has become estranged from the Creator through sin. The estrangement is very powerfully summarised here where the estrangement lies in Isaiah 59:1 & 2 Very simply we see that God would come to the aid of us, the things that separates us is our sins that hide His face from us. The problem lies not with God but with us in our sin Love in our hearts has been eradicated, now there is fear. This is vividly identified in 1 John 4:18 This was perfectly illustrated in the relationship between Adam & Eve and God. They loved Him, they came to Him and God came to them. When they sinned they demonstrated that they had no more love, because they ran because of fear. But God demonstrated that He still had love for them because He came to them. Love was not manifest because of the fear that was there. This is now the whole work of the Godhead to bring love back into man's heart for God. That was what the whole purpose of the mission of Jesus Christ. A statement from Desire of Ages says this beautifully DA: 22 “That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan's deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan.” God's exercise of the facilities of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit was to awaken love again, because through sin man had lost that love. These scriptures underpin the statement from Desire of Ages: John 12:32 That was the mission of Jesus – to bring love into existence, to draw people to Page 95 of 177

God. This is what God's government is about, not by force, but by love. Jeremiah 31:3 When Jesus said “I will be lifted up and draw all men unto me” it is the lovingkindness that is discovered in Jesus, that with loving-kindness He draws us because He loved us with an everlasting love. There is no problem with God, the problem is with us, we have lost that love. 1 John 4:10 & 19 If our service to Him is not generated by that, we have still missed the boat. Love has to be ignited within us, and that is what the work of Jesus is all about. In the verses we have been reading we learn that the whole exercise of the message of the gospel is a love story. How did Jesus provide such incentive to love? We have spent five studies in this series, that He came so close to us that when you feel a total hopeless wreck, when you are overwhelmed with the depravity of the condition that you discover you are, that you see that Jesus came so close to you. That is the factor that melts your heart. Unless you can see your own depraved condition you will never appreciate the great love of God . That is why the genuine person in their newborn state needs to discover his true condition. As we studied that in the old and new covenant we learned that. In the old covenant we promised God to keep His commandments and then we discover how weak we are and so are shattered. After we promised God to be faithful to Him that we blow it completely. And now Jesus says “I have died for that” That's what melts your heart, and this is the cry of: Lamentations 1:12 -14 Here we appreciate the fallen state of a sinner and Jesus Christ Himself. When you have sinned, don't you feel the wrath of God, the fierce anger of justice? Here is the cry of Jesus, the kind of experience He made at the cross and at Gethsemane is here delineated. He came so close to the most abject sinner and experienced the sin of our activity upon Himself. When a person has a heart attack, he feels like he is being strangled, that is what Jesus was going through, and He died of a heart attack because of fear. The fear of sin strangled Him. It is by such measure of the amazing activity of God that we are ransomed. So that all who permit themselves to be wooed out of Satan's kidnap condition, who respond, will experience the old and new covenant experience. Through this old and new covenant experience the following scripture we see this unleashed Page 96 of 177

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 He has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, because we were estranged. That is the calling of the mind that can see the suffering of Jesus Christ. Now God says “I am suffering this through Jesus Christ with you” - atonement. “As I am doing that, what will you do about it, will you not surrender to this reconciling activity so that your heart will be filled with love instead of fear as you consider your own sinfulness?” The other scripture that opens this vista to our mind of God's appeal of the wonderful sacrifice of Jesus. This is the prayer of Jesus, the high priestly prayer: John 17:19-23 He is not just praying for the disciples, but for us. The sinner through Jesus Christ can see that God’s love to Christ and God’s love to the sinner is the same. This will melt our hearts if we permit our minds to be occupied with this material. Notice here that this love story is epitomized in the words of Jesus here. These three are one, like He created man and woman, and these two are one. The true relation of unity in marriage is the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As you become occupied with the application of the facility of Jesus in becoming one with sinful me, so that I can become one with God by having my heart drawn out to Him by His activity that your mind becomes so filled with such an amazing picture that you can't stop thinking and talking about Him. The atonement is the love story. It is surprising that this amazing story doesn't occupy the mind of the majority of Christians. They talk about everything else but this amazing story. The story of Jesus is hardly uttered with great admiration, but as theory, doctrine, ideas and opinions. Apostle Paul made an experience with Jesus that caused him to be totally occupied in his mind of that experience. Notice how apostle Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 2:2 Look back at your first love in a marriage, you couldn't stop talking and thinking about your partner, could you? That is what the relationship with Jesus is about – you can't stop thinking and talking about Him, He is just occupying your whole love motivation. You want to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is expressed again in John 3:29 & 30 John the Baptist was so in love with Jesus Christ in this expression. John the Baptist was absolutely spellbound by Jesus, because he was not the bride, he Page 97 of 177

was the friend of the bridegroom. The bride is the church and as each member of the church realises what Jesus has done for the church He has done for us, he loves the bridegrooms voice. This is his joy, to hear the bridegroom's voice, and I want to exonerate Him. This is the love story that is generated by understanding the true aspect of the gospel. Ephesians 5:22-27 This is what the marriage is meant to be and it can only be found with Jesus. A subjection of love. As the church is spellbound with Jesus it happily submits itself to Him. That's the story. This whole work of the atonement culminating in the marriage supper. 30-32 The perfect parallel, Jesus Christ coming one with us, we have a reciprocative experience, He is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. That is what marriage is supposed to typify. This is a great mystery. Many marriages don't understand this mystery, but its a mystery that can be discovered if it is entered into as Jesus meant it to be. Marriage is the symbol of the intimacy of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to us. We read it here in: Jeremiah 3:14 & 15 How did He get married to us? – by atonement. This is where the parable of Jesus Christ comes in. The kingdom of heaven is like a marriage: Matthew 22:2 Revelation 19: 7-9 As the atonement is the bonding of sinful man with God in Jesus Christ, it is symbolized with marriage, because it is a bonding of many in one. Repentant, sinful man is here addressed that he can be married. The marriage is the atonement What is the supper? To appreciate what they will experience at the marriage supper come to: Isaiah 55:1-3 The mercies of David. David had sinned terribly and the covenant, the bonding agreement is the sure mercies of David that is obtained through the atonement. Page 98 of 177

This is the marriage supper. The atonement feast that you can occupy your mind with; not physical food, listen, incline your ear, listen, receive of these spiritual messages, that is the feast. Jeremiah 15:16 Feasting upon the Word, making that my banquet. We have the name of God upon us as a wife takes the name of her husband. As I absorb the Word, my heart revived and I loved God and I don't run away from Him any more like Adam and Eve did. Psalms 119:103 This is the feasting, a word digestion exercise. At the time the 70 left Him, Jesus points out we are to relish communion with Him: John 6:48-57 & 63 Eat my words, expressing the reality of Me, make them your mind activity,. They are words of a marriage supper. Ezekiel 2:7 & 8 The banquet is available to those who are not rebellious Ezekiel 3:1-3 The supper of the marriage supper of the Lamb is a spiritual feast, and in Heaven one day there is going to be a physical feast, but it is correlated, it is feasting on the atonement. At a wedding supper that we are invited to be as guests to eat and enjoy the food, we are to be dressed also. Let's come over to “ Is 61:10 Here is the garment at the wedding supper. What was it? The robe of righteousness is the wedding garment. That is what we read in Revelation 19:8 Matthew 22: 2-14 The marriage feast in which a certain guest is there but gets thrown out. The first part is the gospel invitation to the Jewish nation, they rejected the call and attacked his servants. You notice he burnt their city, this is what happened to the Jewish city, Jerusalem. The Gentiles come in and take the wedding invitation. Page 99 of 177

The feast was there, he was at the feast, but did not have on the wedding garment. To be part of the wedding is to be part of the atonement and ultimately to be benefited requires response to the beauty of the word and feasting upon it which also provides the garment. A summarising of this is found in COLOSSIANS 317 par 2 “The professed churches of Christ in this generation are exalted to the highest privileges. The Lord has been revealed to us in ever-increasing light. Our privileges are far greater than were the privileges of God's ancient people. We have not only the great light committed to Israel, but we have the increased evidence of the great salvation brought to us through Christ. That which was type and symbol to the Jews is reality to us. They had the Old Testament history; we have that and the New Testament also. We have the assurance of a Saviour who has come, a Saviour who has been crucified, who has risen, and over the rent sepulcher of JosEphesians has proclaimed, "I am the resurrection and the life." In our knowledge of Christ and His love the kingdom of God is placed in the midst of us. Christ is revealed to us in sermons and chanted to us in songs. The spiritual banquet is set before us in rich abundance. The wedding garment, provided at infinite cost, is freely offered to every soul. By the messengers of God are presented to us the righteousness of Christ, justification by faith, the exceeding great and precious promises of God's word, free access to the Father by Christ, the comfort of the Spirit, the well-grounded assurance of eternal life in the kingdom of God. What could God do for us that He has not done in providing the great supper, the heavenly banquet? “ So, the privilege of feasting and engaging in the atonement with Jesus is the marriage supper, and we will be blessed with His righteousness. It is a banquet of spiritual engagement, eating the words, digesting. When the work of the marriage banqueting of this spiritual aspect is completed, there is an examination by the King and that is part of the first angels' message. Revelation 14:6-7 the angel is preaching the everlasting gospel. As the angel goes into the detail of that, he then says “Fear God ...for the hour of His judgment is come” Because you have been banqueting, because you have been receiving the marriage garment, now comes the investigation. The King will come and examine and when it is all completed, then comes Jesus in physical return, advent, and notice how the marriage supper is culminated in; Page 100 of 177

Luke 12:36 When Jesus comes, He will come from the wedding and then, as those who are ready, to be received by Him they will partake of the physical food on those tables. The spiritual marriage supper happens before Jesus comes so that we well be able to enjoy the physical feast when Jesus has come. This is the understanding of the marriage supper.

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16 THE RESURRECTION The Godhead has pledged themselves to provide every facility given for the benefit of sinful man. The Father has His facility, the Son has His, and the Holy Spirit has his facility. An intimacy came into being through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Every property of the Godhead was delivered to sinful man by Jesus Christ because He became a man. Romans 8:31 & 32 In not sparing His Son, He could give us all things of God. One of the properties which was encased in the gift of Jesus Christ is written in 1Timothy 6: 15 & 16 He only hath immortality. Romans 8:15-17 Through Jesus Christ we become heirs of God , joint heirs with Christ. This means we are heirs of everything He is, including immortality. John 1: 1-4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. We are the property of God and the property of Jesus Christ, which is eternal life. John 10:17 & 18 Here Jesus says: “I lay down my life, that I might take it again. I have power to lay it down; I have power to take it again.” Therefore the power of immortality is what Jesus had. “This commandment have I received of my Father” Jesus Christ had immortality inside Him. This immortality (life) is available through the gospel to us. 2 Timothy 1: 9 & 10 The gospel of Jesus Christ brings immortality to light (to our understanding). To every believer in Jesus Christ, this is made available. Page 102 of 177

1 John 5: 11-12 Eternal life (immorality) is in Jesus Christ ( His Son). He that hath the Son hath life (eternal life, immortality) John 11:25 & 26 Jesus said to Martha “ I am the resurrection and the life and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. In other words, has immortality. To understand resurrection, we must understand Christ as we can't just study resurrection on its own, because He is the resurrection. John 5: 28 & 29 Here are two resurrections:  The resurrection of life (not the resurrection to life)  The resurrection of damnation When a person who has Jesus Christ dies: 1 Thes 4: 14-17 resurrection of life. They are not dead because they have Christ in them and eternal life is in Christ, they are only asleep Revelation 20: 4-6 the first resurrection. Those who are asleep in Jesus Christ, they are not dead. Only the death of sleep has power over them. The resurrection of damnation: Revelation 20:13, 12, 14 *death and hell deliver up the dead *the dead were judged from the book of life according to their works *they were judged out of those things which were written in the books – the dead are judged *Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire – this is the second death, where the dead are resurrected The difference between the first resurrection and the second resurrection is very powerfully identified in 1 Thessalonians 4:14 Died in Jesus means sleep in Jesus. This is the first resurrection, they have died in Jesus. The immortal was in Jesus the man. As we believe that, we understand that when he died on the cross, the immortal God could not remain in the grave. Page 103 of 177

The dead are brought up in the second resurrection to be finally destroyed Let's read Acts 2:24 2 Corinthians 5:21 Humanity died when Jesus died because it was sinful flesh (He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.) The immortal God could not be held there. When Jesus came to earth He was made to be sin for us, and the wages of sin is death. Hebrews 2: 14-15 Colossians 1:21 & 22 Why did He die? Because He had the same flesh and blood that we have. What flesh is that? The flesh and blood of sin. He was made to be sin for us and sin has the consequence of death. Jesus took that so that by death he might destroy the power of death., conquer death. God the Son (life) was integrated with the flesh. The body of his flesh would die, The divinity in him rose again. Therefore, by that transaction He could present us unblamable and without sin (if we are in Him). When He arose, He arose by the life that was in Him. It is His resurrection that we need to have. Victory over sin by stopping sinning is not enough as you have already sinned. Sin needs to be utterly destroyed through death. Let's read it here, very powerfully brought out here in 1 Corinthians 15:12-23 Jesus died like Adam did, but every human being who died like Adam died has been made alive again through Jesus Christ because that death could not hold Him. The condition of resurrection started from when Jesus was resurrected. It is a permanent reality. God is the I am – past, present and future is all one event. So when Jesus died and rose again, the event of every believer in Christ took place in potential. So the resurrection of Christ is to be ours. We must ingest the divine nature before we die if we are to be resurrected. This is what Jesus meant in John 6: 47-51 to eat the flesh of Jesus is to ingest His flesh Page 104 of 177

53, 54 eating (ingesting) His divine nature 58 we shall live forever 63 the word of God is spirit and life Jesus is saying that to have everlasting life, I must ingest Him, because He is the everlasting life. The manna was not everlasting life. When you eat food, that food becomes part of you, but that is not eternal life, you must ingest Jesus Christ, take Him in just like you take bread in, so the eternal life ingredient can be in you. The atonement of Jesus must be ingested, if we eat His flesh we eat His divine nature too because it was inseparable. By this we shall live forever. It is the Word of God that Jesus came to live on earth, that Word is part and parcel of Him. As you absorb the spirit of that Word you have divine nature inside of you because that Word is spirit filled, that Word is the life-giving eternal energy. Remember, God created by speaking. If you have the Word then you are born again, this is written in 1 Pet 1: 23-25 To be born again of incorruptible seed by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Just like in procreation the seed is combined inside of a woman and forth comes a child. This is what must happen inside of us. If you have that Word instilled in you it endureth forever, it is impossible for your to die. 2 Peter 1:4 As Jesus, the Word, is ingested, his flesh, which by sin died, the divine nature continued. That which escaped the corruption, Jesus could escape the corruption of death by the divine nature encased in the Word. With divine nature in you as you embrace Jesus, at death the divine nature is a seed of life a germ of life like in a seed. Jesus talks about this, a seed must fall into the ground and die otherwise if it remains on the shelf it is useless. The external parts of it must die so the germ inside of it will come up again. That is the seed of the Word, Jesus the Word. The divine nature is the germ that is in the seed and springs up. It lies dormant for a while, but the germ the life will spring up. When we have the word of God inside of us when our body withers away, there is a germ that cannot die, the divine nature and that will rise again, if your have Jesus. Isaiah 26:19 Those who are in the grave will come out of the grave, together with Christ's dead body will they arise. Every one in their own time. 4BC: 1143 “The Life-giver will call up His purchased possession in the first resurrection, and until that triumphant hour, when the last trump shall Page 105 of 177

sound and the vast army shall come forth to eternal victory, every sleeping saint will be kept in safety and will be guarded as a precious jewel, who is known to God by name. By the power of the Saviour that dwelt in them while living and because they were partakers of the divine nature, they are brought forth from the dead” This is a precious statement. While we are alive the power of the Saviour is in us. Therefore it is imperative that before we die we have the life of Jesus in us through His Word. If we don't have that it is just a natural consequence that we won't have part in the resurrection. None of us has life in us, only the immorality of Jesus is the life that will rise again. 1 Corinthians 15:35-53 The body of the grain is sown in corruption, that's the human flesh, but it is raised in incorrupt ion. When you throw the grain into the soil, it is only the knowledge that you know it will raise into a living plant, but when it grows up it is not the same material as the grain. And that is what the apostle Paul is talking about. The flesh is like the grain that is no longer the same when it comes up. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. The body falls into the ground; when it rises, it comes up a different material. BC 1092-93 The resurrection of Jesus was a sample of the final resurrection of all who sleep in Him. The risen body of the Saviour, His deportment, the accents of His speech, were all familiar to His followers. In like manner will those who sleep in Jesus rise again. We shall know our friends even as the disciples knew Jesus. Though they may have been deformed, diseased, or disfigured in this mortal life, yet in their resurrected and glorified body their individual identity will be perfectly preserved, and we shall recognize, in the face radiant with the light shining from the face of Jesus, the lineaments of those we love Our personal identity is preserved in the resurrection, though not the same particles of matter or material substance as went into the grave. The wondrous works of God are a mystery to man. The spirit, the character of man, is returned to God, there to be preserved. In the resurrection every man will have his own character. God in His own time will call forth the dead, giving again the breath of life, and bidding the dry bones live. The same form will come forth, but it will be free from disease and every defect. Page 106 of 177

It lives again bearing the same individuality of features, so that friend will recognize friend. There is no law of God in nature which shows that God gives back the same identical particles of matter which composed the body before death. God shall give the righteous dead a body that will please Him. Paul illustrates this subject by the kernel of grain sown in the field. The planted kernel decays, but there comes forth a new kernel. The natural substance in the grain that decays is never raised as before, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him. A much finer material will compose the human body, for it is a new creation, a new birth. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” When Jesus died He rose up a different body but He was still visibly the same person. We will be the same. That is the spiritual body we will have when we are changed, that is the immortal life, the other part is gone forever. If we want to have confidence that we will have eternal life, we must ingest that eternal life now. If I do not have it now, in all reality I will not have it then.

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17 DISCIPLESHIP This will launch us out in another series within the series. The question can be asked: What has discipleship to do with the three angels message or the topics that we have studied already? 2SM: 387 The angels are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming to the world a message of warning, and having a direct bearing upon the people living in the last days of this earth's history. No one hears the voice of these angels, for they are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven. Men and women, enlightened by the Spirit of God and sanctified through the truth, proclaim the three messages in their order. Romans that statement, we understand that for three angels to do their work there has to be a people who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven. Discipleship a word that describes activity in following the messages in our experience in order to proclaim them. How do we receive this living practicality unless we are disciples? To understand discipleship we need to watch and examine the work of Jesus with the twelve. Matthew 4: 18-22 A disciple is a follower The call of the twelve. “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” In the words, “I will train you” Just as a fisherman enters into the trade of fishing, a disciple enters into the trade of winning souls, fishers of men. Jesus called a very capable man, in the same manner as before, in the calling of the rich young man in: Matthew 19: 21 & 22 To be a disciple of Jesus is to follow him according to the call He makes to us. The fishermen let everything go and followed Him, but this man, who was called the same way, wouldn't follow because he was attached to his possessions. The original church was formed on that basis. Page 108 of 177

We see what Jesus said to them in reference to what it means to be active in discipleship in Matthew 10: 37-39 Here we are made aware of what a disciple is. It is somebody who leaves behind everything that is not relevant to discipleship. There is a cross in following Jesus. We must leave behind everything that is not relevant to discipleship, even fellow human beings that would block us in that path. Matthew 19: 27-30 “Follow me” means following the example of Jesus Christ. John 12:26 To be where He is, not where I want to be or where others want me to be. 1 John 2:6 To walk even as He walked, to practice His lifestyle, to be at one with Him in character building. 1Pet 2:21-22 Christ is our example Luke 14:26-27 “hate” means not enjoy being with, to love less John 2:4 Jesus distanced himself from his own mother. The disciples became agents to attract other disciples. John 20: 20-22 After His death and resurrection. What does Jesus want us to do? Page 109 of 177

Matthew 28:18-20  Teach all nations  Baptizing them in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit  Teaching them to observe all things (Whatsoever I commanded you) Acts 2:41-47 (Pentecost) The same procedure in bringing others was used as the disciples followed Jesus' call. These disciples became absorbed just as the first disciples were absorbed in Jesus. They were all focused on following Jesus. 1 John 1:1-7 (especially 1-3) To be a disciple means that which was touched, heard, seen, is imparted to others so we may also have this same intimate fellowship with the Father and Son. 2SM: 387 During the past fifty years of my life, I have had precious opportunities to obtain an experience. I have had an experience in the first, second, and third angels' messages. The angels are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming to the world a message of warning, and having a direct bearing upon the people living in the last days of this earth's history. No one hears the voice of these angels, for they are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven. Men and women, enlightened by the Spirit of God and sanctified through the truth, proclaim the three messages in their order. I have acted a part in this solemn work. Nearly all my Christian experience is interwoven with it. There are those now living who have an experience similar to my own. They have recognized the truth unfolding for this time; they have kept in step with the great Leader, the Captain of the Lord's host. In the proclamation of the message every specification of prophecy has been fulfilled. Those who were privileged to act a part in proclaiming these messages have gained an experience which is of the highest value to them; and now when we are amid the perils of these last days, when voices will be heard on every side saying, "Here is Christ," "Here is truth," while the burden of many is to unsettle the foundation of our faith which has led us from the churches and from the world to stand as a peculiar people in the Page 110 of 177

world, like John our testimony will be borne: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; . . . that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us" (1 John 1:1-3). I testify the things which I have seen, the things which I have heard, the things which my hands have handled of the Word of life. The Three Angels Message is: 1 Hearing the message and following its obvious call 2 Put action behind it in the steps of Jesus DA 297.1 “He who called the fisherman of Galilee is still calling men to His service. And He is just as willing to manifest His power through us as through the first disciples. However imperfect and sinful we may be, the Lord holds out to us the offer of partnership with Himself, of apprenticeship to Christ. He invites us to come under the divine instruction, that, uniting with Christ, we may work the works of God” Luke 11.1 Luke 24: 44-46 After the resurrection the disciples had an understanding of eh scriptures. Matthew 11:27 Jesus imparts the knowledge of the Father John 14: 8-11 What does he learn as he gets to know the Father? Romans 2:4 The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance To be true disciples at this time we need to know: Romans 12:2 Page 111 of 177

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Isaiah 8:14-16 The people living in the last days will be His true disciples Proverbs 4:18 Discipleship is an experimental gaining of the knowledge of God. The disciples are the just, learning and living every detail of Jesus' life, shining more and more unto the perfect day. HP 75 He who places himself where God can enlighten him, advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday. FLB 249 We do not have to do the work of a lifetime in a few hours. We need not look into the future with anxiety; for God has made it possible for us to be overcomers every day. Hebrews 5:8 & 9 Jesus learned obedience by the things which He suffered (trial and error) Matthew 10: 24-25 The meaning of discipleship It is enough for the disciple to be as the master, not above his master.

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18 PRAYER LIFE God reveals Himself in the Godhead through the atonement. He reveals His holiness His grace and gentleness and provides the atonement for our sin. He gently intimates to us to “start to move”, not just to study His goodness. His goodness is meant to cause us to do something. Matthew 10:24 “The disciple is not above [his] master, nor the servant above his lord.” The atonement has made us so that we can pursue the following of Jesus to be like Him because He became like us. In other words, I have given you ample provision, now I invite you to take some definite steps . James 1:21-22 Do something. Lay apart the past life and receive the engrafted word that will save your soul. As you receive the engrafted word, do the word, don't just talk about it, don't just hear it, follow me, do what I did. John 12:26 “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will [my] Father honour.” These words are speaking of practical action. Follow me, be where I am, do what I am doing, and all that for a purpose, so that we can become like Him Mt 11:28-30 Come to me, follow me, take my yoke and learn of me – apprenticeship. DA 297 “And He is just as willing to manifest His power through us as through the first disciples. However imperfect and sinful we may be, the Lord holds out to us the offer of partnership with Himself, of apprenticeship to Christ. He invites us to come under the divine instruction, that, uniting with Christ, we may work the works of God.”

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This is our privilege to work the works of God. When it comes to doing we are called to an apprenticeship procedure. An apprentice follows the tradesman's lead, but he must do something otherwise he doesn't get any where The first lesson of apprenticeship we need to learn is prayer. Why do we need to learn the lesson of prayer? Romans 10:13 If we want to be saved, we must call on the name of the Lord Jeremiah 29:12-13 We need to learn to pray for the result of salvation that we can find God. Without prayer we can read and study as much as we like, but we still will not be able to make the connection. Prayer is necessary. Jeremiah 33:3 Pray for the purpose of salvation, pray that you may find Him, pray that He may show you things that you didn't know That's why the words of Jesus come into focus in Luke 11:9-13 To gain salvation, to have what you need, you need to pray. To really experience the things we have studied, to really know the living reality of it all we need the Holy Spirit. And if you ask He will give us the Holy Spirit and as we have studied the Holy Spirit needs to not only be with us, but in us. So we need to pray for that, we need to understand prayer life to appreciate and receive the Holy Spirit. Recall what we read in regard to the Holy Spirit in: 1Corinthians 2:9-12 We need the Holy Spirit to illuminate us, but we must pray and ask the Father to give Him to us . John 14:26 “But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” We need to know from Jesus how to pray How do we pray? Page 114 of 177

Luke 11:1 We need to be taught about prayer What were they asking? 1Peter 2:21 He is our example, we are to follow in His footsteps to perfection The first step is to pray John 5:19 v 30 What was Jesus' prayer life like? Mark 1:35 “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Isaiah 50:4&5 “The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back”. The Father wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. He wakeneth (Jesus) morning by morning. But I am rebellious. Human nature does not like what God tells it to do. SC 93 “Jesus Himself, while He dwelt among men, was often in prayer. Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs and weakness, in that He became a suppliant, a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, that He might come forth braced for duty and trial. He is our example in all things. He is a brother in our infirmities, "in all points tempted like as we are;" His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege. To live in harmony with God, Jesus needed to pray. Page 115 of 177

Romans 12:12   

Rejoicing in hope Patient in tribulation Continuing instant in prayer (not an instant in which you are not praying)

SC98 “Unceasing prayer is the unbroken union of the soul with God, so that life from God flows into our life; and from our life, purity and holiness flow back to God. There is necessity for diligence in prayer; let nothing hinder you. Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own soul. Seek every opportunity to go where prayer is wont to be made. Those who are really seeking for communion with God will be seen in the prayer meeting, faithful to do their duty and earnest and anxious to reap all the benefits they can gain. They will improve every opportunity of placing themselves where they can receive the rays of light from heaven. We should pray in the family circle, and above all we must not neglect secret prayer, for this is the life of the soul. It is impossible for the soul to flourish while prayer is neglected. Family or public prayer alone is not sufficient. In solitude let the soul be laid open to the inspecting eye of God. Secret prayer is to be heard only by the prayer-hearing God. No curious ear is to receive the burden of such petitions. In secret prayer the soul is free from surrounding influences, free from excitement. Calmly, yet fervently, will it reach out after God. Sweet and abiding will be the influence emanating from Him who seeth in secret, whose ear is open to hear the prayer arising from the heart. By calm, simple faith the soul holds communion with God and gathers to itself rays of divine light to strengthen and sustain it in the conflict with Satan. God is our tower of strength. Pray in your closet, and as you go about your daily labour let your heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of grace. Satan cannot overcome him whose heart is thus stayed upon God. There is no time or place in which it is inappropriate to offer up a petition to God. There is nothing that can prevent us from lifting up our hearts in the spirit of earnest prayer. In the crowds of the street, in the midst of a business engagement, we may send up a petition to God and plead for divine guidance, as did Nehemiah when he made his request before King Artaxerxes. A closet of communion may be found wherever we are. We should have the door of the heart open continually and our invitation going up that Jesus may come and abide as a heavenly guest in the soul.” Page 116 of 177

Jude 20 Praying IN the Holy Ghost Matthew 3:16 Matthew 4:1 Just like Jesus, we may be moved by the Holy Spirit Romans 8:26,27 The Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God The Holy Spirit brings the life of Jesus livingly before us, which brings the breath of Jesus within us. John 16:13-15 Phil 4:6-7 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. This is the prayer life of Christ Jesus. The Lord's prayer is not just a repetition of words, but a principle of the Holy Spirit (the spirit of prayer) Matthew 6:7-13 We are to commune with God as Jesus did according to the work of the Godhead. As we commune with each other, so we are to commune with God. This is the prayer life we need to learn. Communing with God prevents us from sinning. Romans 6:17-18 “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” We become the servants of righteousness due to obedience from the heart that forms a doctrine which was delivered you (that is, a heart expression as Jesus did) Page 117 of 177

Mark 11:24 “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them].”

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19 HOW TO STUDY THE WORD OF GOD This is part of the mini-series on discipleship. Before we went into the discipleship detail we learned that every facility is provided for us from the Godhead and the object of gaining these assistances from the Godhead we recall in Hebrews 12:10 “For they verily for a few days chastened [us] after their own pleasure; but he for [our] profit, that [we] might be partakers of his holiness.” That's what the final objective is, to be partakers of His holiness. This is the work of the gospel and the Godhead. We beheld, as we studied, the detail of the atonement in Jesus and how this was applied by the Holy Spirit and the process that was involved as we looked at the ransom and our personal effort involved in the two covenants. Now we want to study how to study the Word of God in that apprenticeship. All that we haves studied to this point in time, we have gained our understanding by Bible study. It wasn't a man giving instruction from his own wisdom, it was Bible revelation, therefore the facility to know all these things we are studying is the Bible. The account of this is found in: 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” All scripture is profitable for:  doctrine  reproof  correction instruction in righteousness The Holy Spirit is the facility that has provided the Word v 17 “That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” To be perfect we need to have good works that are furnished by the study of the Page 119 of 177

Bible. There lies the apprenticeship.

HOW TO LEARN THE PERFECTING PROCESS FROM THE BIBLE John 5:39 MYP 258 “Young men should search the Scriptures for themselves. They are not to feel that it is sufficient for those older in experience to find out the truth; that the younger ones can accept it from them as authority. The Jews perished as a nation because they were drawn from the truth of the Bible by their rulers, priests, and elders. Had they heeded the lessons of Jesus, and searched the Scriptures for themselves, they would not have perished.” The authority is not from man, but from personal Bible study. Reflecting Christ 117 “There must be earnest study and close investigation. Sharp, clear perceptions of truth will never be the reward of indolence. No earthly blessing can be obtained without earnest, patient, persevering effort. If men attain success in business, they must have a will to do and a faith to look for results. And we cannot expect to gain spiritual knowledge without earnest toil. Those who desire to find the treasures of truth must dig for them as the miner digs for the treasure hidden in the earth. No half-hearted, indifferent work will avail. It is essential for old and young, not only to read God's Word, but to study it with wholehearted earnestness, praying and searching for truth as for hidden treasure. Those who do this will be rewarded, for Christ will quicken the understanding.” John 6:53, 54, 63 We need to ingest the food for ourselves in order to develop. How do we go about gaining this for ourselves? The object is to gain eternal life by perfection of holiness. John 7:15-17 Note: 'The doctrine is of Him that sent me. Page 120 of 177

As you study the Bible you need to study it for the purpose to do, not to study to know something. DA 459 “Whoever will prayerfully study the Bible, desiring to know the truth, that he may obey it, will receive divine enlightenment. He will understand the Scriptures. "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching."John 7:17 Romans 10:13 Jeremiah 29:11-14 Isaiah 55:6-9 Prayer is needed for the object of understanding God's thoughts and the way to do them 1Corinthians 2: 9-10 Jeremiah 33:3 Our prayer life is to reach out to God Bible study is God talking back to us John 5:39 Isaiah 34:16 The practical engagement or method is reading to take every declaration of God as He has declared it. Everything you read is a statement of God and has value in itself. Take it as it is written or as it reads. There is no explanation required. Deuteronomy 4:2 Proverbs 30:5-6 GC 598 “It is the first and highest duty of every rational being to learn from the Scriptures what is truth, and then to walk in the light and encourage others to follow his example. We should day by day study the Bible diligently, weighing every thought and comparing scripture with scripture. With Page 121 of 177

divine help we are to form our opinions for ourselves as we are to answer for ourselves before GodGod has given us His word that we may become acquainted with its teachings and know for ourselves what He requires of us. “ Compare scripture with scripture, take it as it reads, then read on the same subject. Isaiah 28:9-12 2 Timothy 2:15 GC 203 “The Holy Scriptures ought to be explained by other and clearer texts; . . . this Holy Book is, in all things necessary for the Christian, easy of understanding, and calculated to scatter the darkness: My Life Today 22.4 “You must dig deep in the mine of truth if you would find its richest treasures. Comparing scripture with scripture, you may find the true meaning of the text; but if you do not make the sacred teachings of God's Word the rule and guide of your life, the truth will be nothing to you. . . . If any part of God's Word condemns any habit you have cherished, any feeling you have indulged, any spirit you have manifested, turn not from the Word of God; but turn away from the evil of your doings, and let Jesus cleanse and sanctify your heart. “ We must need help to do this John 10:13-17 Preaching by someone who has been sent to us and shows us a faith that comes from hearing the Word of God. Isaiah 30:20-21 Jeremiah 3:14-15 We need to identify correct preachers that God has sent 2 Peter 2:1 Isaiah 8: 16 & 20 Page 122 of 177

Compare Paul as he preached to the Bereans, who then went to study the scripture for themselves to search if such teachings of Paul were in accordance with the Word. Acts 17:10-12 Jeremiah 15:16 Romans 15:4 The patient work of studying the Bible brings comfort and hope Psalm 19:50 Hebrews 6:18-19 In conclusion John 8: 31-32 “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. Continue and act in continuance on what I read If I don’t, it will never happen. Don't live on past experiences Starvation and death can only be stopped by continual feeding Reading to do, continue to let it become broader and bigger to greater heights of achievement.

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20 THE APPRENTICESHIP OF REPENTANCE The attributes of holiness and grace are revealed in the atonement of Jesus, to be engraven into us by the apprenticeship to Jesus Christ through our prayer life and the study of the Word for ourselves. As we study it calls for: Romans 2:4 “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? “ In studying repentance the first question is Who is it that must exercise repentance? Matthew 9:13 A sinner does not naturally desire repentance, he loves sin. Unless first of all the sinner would promise, then fails having broken his promise, then feels the true condition of sinfulness. The sense of failure fills the heart with bitterness (low self-esteem). This awareness is followed by repentance. This is the process: 1 Matthew 27:3-5 Page 124 of 177

Failure leads to bitterness (e.g.Judas hanged himself) Hebrews 12:15-17 e.g. Esau sought repentance with tears but found no way to change his mind (a life separated from God) Repentance means to change your mind. 2Corinthians 7:10 How can godly sorrow take place? Acts 5:31 Repentance needs to be given to us. We receive repentance from Him John 3:27 A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven Is acceptable repentance something that must be given? John 1:17 Romans 8:32 With Jesus Christ is the gift of repentance in the New Testament (or new covenant). We can learn the repentance of Jesus. Hebrews 5:7-9 Jesus learned repentance through strong crying and tears. He learned obedience by the things he suffered Acts 2:37-38 What shall we do? Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Preaching created a pricking of heart which lead to repentance. Is there something in Jesus that I can identify with in a pricked heart? Mark 15:34 Page 125 of 177

Isaiah 59:1-2 from 8:3 How was sin condemned in the flesh? Psalm 22:1&2 What was He doing? He was crying and pleading as He carried our sins in His body. Psalm 40: 11-12 The cry for mercy was repentance Psalm 9:1-3 5-7 confession, repentance 13 & 14, 17 Jesus is repenting TMK 109 “ It is not now the work of the sinner to make peace with God, but to accept Christ as his peace and righteousness. Thus man becomes one with Christ and one with God. There is no way by which the heart may be made holy, save through faith in Christ. Yet many think that repentance is a kind of preparation which men must originate themselves before they can come to Christ. They must take steps themselves in order to find Christ a mediator in their behalf. It is true that there must be repentance before there is pardon, but the sinner must come to Christ before he can find repentance It is the virtue of Christ that strengthens and enlightens the soul, so that repentance may be godly and acceptable. . . . Repentance is as certainly a gift of Jesus Christ as is forgiveness of sins. Repentance cannot be experienced without Christ, for it is the repentance of which He is the author that is the ground upon which we may apply for pardon. It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that men are led to repentance. It is from Christ that the grace of contrition comes, as well as the gift of pardon, and repentance as well as forgiveness of sins is procured only through the atoning blood of Christ. Those whom God pardons He first makes penitent” Luke 23:46 How does God respond when we repent like Jesus did? Page 126 of 177

Psalm 51:16&17 The sacrifices of Gad are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. God does not despise this contrite heart, He gives pardon.

Psalm 40:1-4 2 Corinthians 7:8-11 We need not only to be sorry for a season, but to sorrow to repentance 2 Corinthians 7: 10-11 Repentance leads to salvation, not to be repented of. This is godly repentance, which leads to carefulness, vehement desire, fear, zeal. Let us be clear in this matter. True change of mind is required through Jesus Christ. Phil 2:12 “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” We must engage in this type of repentance. This is an apprenticeship, we must continue til we have it down to perfection. It is an ongoing apprenticeship and experience of repentance until Jesus finds us holy. COLOSSIANS 159-160 “The prayer of the publican was heard because it showed dependence reaching forth to lay hold upon Omnipotence. Self to the publican appeared nothing but shame. Thus it must be seen by all who seek God. By faith--faith that renounces all self-trust--the needy suppliant is to lay hold upon infinite power. No outward observances can take the place of simple faith and entire renunciation of self. But no man can empty himself of self. We can only consent for Christ to accomplish the work. Then the language of the soul will be, Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it. It is Thy property. Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for Thee. Save me in spite of myself, my weak, unchristlike self. Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can flow through my soul. It is not only at the beginning of the Christian life that Page 127 of 177

this renunciation of self is to be made. At every advance step heavenward it is to be renewed. All our good works are dependent on a power outside of ourselves. Therefore there needs to be a continual reaching out of the heart after God, a continual, earnest, heartbreaking confession of sin and humbling of the soul before Him. Only by constant renunciation of self and dependence on Christ can we walk safely.” There is to be a continual reaching of the heart out to God this leads to continual heart-breaking confession of sin. This is why Jesus did not sin in His flesh; this is what He practiced. 1 Peter 4: 1&2 “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of [his] time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” We should arm ourselves with the same mind: continual confession and repentance of sin.

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21 THE APPRENTICESHIP OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH Jesus shows us how to repent; He Himself repented. Matthew 9:13 Romans 2:4 Forbearance , longsuffering, goodness Acts 5:31 He gives forgiveness as He gives repentance To be an apprentice to Jesus, we need to know repentance and forgiveness that leads to justification. 1 John 1: 7-9 When we acknowledge that we have sinned, then we gain forgiveness, this gives us fellowship one with another. In the atonement, this is what Jesus did. 1Corinthians 1:30 Righteousness is the result of forgiveness of sinfulness 2Corinthians 5:21 As we go through the program with Him, we will go through the same transaction. Righteousness is synonymous with justification. When we are cleansed from sin we become righteous. Romans 5:16-21

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One man's disobedience caused many to be made sinners One man's obedience caused many to be made righteous. Adam was the forerunner of sin. Jesus was the forerunner of justification. How did this happen by Christ? Jesus repented for us. Romans 4:2-25 Jesus died because I had to die for sin. He took me into Himself so that I died with Him. Therefore, when he was raised, I was raised with him. This is the faith of Jesus I am raised out of that death from sin, therefore I have perfect confidence that , like Him, I am righteous, I am justified. Romans 6:3-11 Romans 4:25 Romans 3:19-28 v 24 “ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” v 26 “To declare, [I say], at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” v 28 “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” SC 62 “The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been,--just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents,--perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperilled. The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized. It was possible for Adam, before the fall, to form a righteous character by obedience to God's law. But he failed to do this, and because of his sin our natures are fallen and we cannot make ourselves righteous. Since we are sinful, unholy, we cannot perfectly obey the holy law. We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. He lived on earth amid trials and temptations such as we have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now He offers to Page 130 of 177

take our sins and give us His righteousness. If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.” If you give yourself to Him, then for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character is accepted as our character, just as if I had not sinned. This is true forgiveness. Your faith must exercise itself to accept that Jesus has died (repented) with my sin and that when He rose again, now I am in existence as if I had never sinned. Cast yourself totally on God's grace. This leads to a complete loss of condemnation. Therefore we are not under the law, but under grace 2 Corinthians 5:16, 17, 18 Romans 5:1 Hebrews 6: 17-19 Hebrews 10: 35-39 vv 38-39 “Now the just shall live by faith: but if [any man] draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

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22 THE APPRENTICESHIP OF SANCTIFICATION We have spent 21 studies so far. Has anything happened to your mind as these truths have been unravelled before us? Is this Scripture a reality? 2 Corinthians 3:18 As you gazed upon the knowledge of God, as we studied the details of the Godhead, we had a marriage supper, we ate and digested the beautiful Word of God over these last studied. The three persons of the Godhead, the facilities they offered us for our eternal benefit 1. The love of the Father, His grace, his holiness 2. The second Person, who became one with us and applied the work of our salvation in Himself to us 3. The Holy Spirit who reveals the things that this second Person did, into our inward self As we beheld all that, did we become captivated by these mysteries, did we desire to enter a discipleship with Him? The release connecting with Jesus to the person who does so, there is an amazing comfort and release that is found in all these things, especially to come to the point of what is written in that justification takes deep root inside of our heart SC 62 “We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. He lived on earth amid trials and temptations such as we have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now He offers to take our sins and give us His righteousness. If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.” Doesn't that relieve the person who is a sinner and knows his condition in contrast to God's perfection. This person is justified, he is declared righteous, he Page 132 of 177

is fee, he is at liberty. Christ's character stands in place of your character and you stand before God just as if you had not sinned. FLB 139 “Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate. It is not a small matter to transform an earthly, sin-loving mind and bring it to understand the unspeakable love of Christ, the charms of His grace, and the Excellency of God, so that the soul shall be imbued with divine love and captivated with the heavenly mysteries. When he understands these things, his former life appears disgusting and hateful. He hates sin, and, breaking his heart before God, he embraces Christ as the life and joy of the soul” Apprenticeship to Christ means to be captivated to discipleship. 2Corinthians 3:17 & 18 Although we at liberty, the changing continues. A change takes place in justification, but now being justified we are set at liberty, now we move on in the change from glory to glory. Romans 5:9 & 10 Romans 8: 9-31 Changed from glory to glory: Predestinated; called; justified; glorified (sanctified) Therefore, if God be for us, who can be against us? Proverbs 4:11 v 18 This is the apprenticeship of sanctification HP 75 “He who places himself where God can enlighten him, advances, as it were, from the partial obscurity of dawn to the full radiance of noonday.” FLB 139 “Heaven, which once possessed no charms, is now viewed in its riches and glory; and he contemplates it as his future home, where he shall see, love, and praise the One who hath redeemed him by His precious blood. The works of holiness, which appeared wearisome, are now his delight. The Page 133 of 177

Word of God, which was dull and uninteresting, is now chosen as his study, the man of his counsel. It is as a letter written to him from God, bearing the inscription of the Eternal. His thoughts, his words, and his deeds are brought to this rule and tested. He trembles at the commands and threatenings which it contains, while he firmly grasps its promises and strengthens his soul by appropriating them to himself. When the transforming grace of Christ is upon the heart, a righteous indignation will take possession of the soul because the sinner has so long neglected the great salvation that God has provided for him. He will then surrender himself, body, soul, and spirit, to God and will withdraw from companionship with Satan, through the grace given him of God. All need to understand the process of conversion. The fruit is seen in the changed life” This requires a constant beholding, watching the Master Hebrews 2: 9-11 John 17: 13-20 We will be sanctified by the truth that He brought into existence. It can only be understood by following Jesus in the action What is sanctification? 1 Corinthians 1:30 Jesus was made unto us:  wisdom  righteousness  sanctification  redemption He was made this in the man Christ Jesus, as you study Him and you will understand what sanctification means. JESUS THE SOURCE OF SANCTIFICATION Psalm 2:7 Hebrews 1:4 Page 134 of 177

Colossians 1:15 Exodus 13:2 Sanctified means set aside for God for holy use. Genesis 2:2-3 Exodus 20:8,11 1 Peter 1:13-16 Sanctification is a process of being made holy, set apart as Jesus was. 2Corinthians 6: 17-18 The process of being made separate is like the dawning of the day This process was portrayed by Jesus Himself. When was it that He sanctified Himself? Hebrews 5:7-9 This was an experience involving strong crying and tears. He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. It is a process of learning. Hebrews 12:1-3 Hebrews 5:13-14 Ephesians 4:11-13 Philippians 3:12-16 Proverbs 24:16 Psalm 37: 23-24 Micah 7:8-9 RH May 12 1896 “ If one who daily communes with God errs from the path, if he turns a Page 135 of 177

moment from looking steadfastly unto Jesus, it is not because he sins wilfully; for when he sees his mistake, he turns again, and fastens his eyes upon Jesus, and the fact that he has erred, does not make him less dear to the heart of God. He knows that he has communion with the Saviour; and when reproved for his mistake in some matter of judgment, he does not walk sullenly, and complain of God, but turns the mistake into a victory.” As a child does not know it is growing, so it is with sanctification. RH Apr 28 1891 “ Imperceptibly to ourselves, we are changed day by day from our own ways and will into the ways and will of Christ, into the loveliness of his character. Thus we grow up into Christ, and unconsciously reflect his image” My evil ways will be changed. This is God's way of growth. DA 679 “Christ rejoiced that He could do more for His followers than they could ask or think. He spoke with assurance, knowing that an almighty decree had been given before the world was made. He knew that truth, armed with the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, would conquer in the contest with evil; and that the bloodstained banner would wave triumphantly over His followers. He knew that the life of His trusting disciples would be like His, a series of uninterrupted victories, not seen to be such here, but recognized as such in the great hereafter.”

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23 GOD'S PERFECT AND PERMISSIVE WILL We reflect back on our past studies of the apprenticeship in the school of Christ in John 17:19 He and the believer are one in this transaction. Jesus sanctified Himself that we might be sanctified through the truth that He mapped out for us. As He sanctified Himself, He and the believer are one in partnership of this transaction. We read about it in Hebrews 2:10-11 The apprenticeship, the discipleship that Jesus calls us to is indeed the work of partnership in sanctification which has been enlarged in our previous studies. We read once more this, that launched us out in it DA 294.4 “God takes men as they are, with the human elements in their character, and trains them for His service, if they will be disciplined and learn of Him. They are not chosen because they are perfect, but notwithstanding their imperfections, that through the knowledge and practice of the truth, through the grace of Christ, they may become transformed into His image” DA 297.1 “ He who called the fisherman of Galilee is still calling men to His service. And He is just as willing to manifest His power through us as through the first disciples. However imperfect and sinful we may be, the Lord holds out to us the offer of partnership with Himself, of apprenticeship to Christ. He invites us to come under the divine instruction, that, uniting with Christ, we may work the works of God.” How is God's will to be understood in this process? FLB 139 “Conversion is a work that most do not appreciate. It is not a small matter to transform an earthly, sin-loving mind and bring it to understand the unspeakable love of Christ, the charms of His grace, and the excellency of God, so that the soul shall be imbued with divine love and captivated with Page 137 of 177

the heavenly mysteries. When he understands these things, his former life appears disgusting and hateful. He hates sin, and, breaking his heart before God, he embraces Christ as the life and joy of the soul. He renounces his former pleasures. He has a new mind, new affections, new interest, new will; his sorrows, and desires, and love are all new. . . . Heaven, which once possessed no charms, is now viewed in its riches and glory; and he contemplates it as his future home, where he shall see, love, and praise the One who hath redeemed him by His precious blood. The works of holiness, which appeared wearisome, are now his delight. The Word of God, which was dull and uninteresting, is now chosen as his study, the man of his counsel. It is as a letter written to him from God, bearing the inscription of the Eternal. His thoughts, his words, and his deeds are brought to this rule and tested. He trembles at the commands and threatenings which it contains, while he firmly grasps its promises and strengthens his soul by appropriating them to himself. “ The goal is to arrive at the ultimate mastery of righteousness, therefore we need to know the will of the Master tradesman under whom we are apprentices. God's will 1 Thes 4:3 God's will is your sanctification. This is what pleases Him. Titus 2: 11-12 Teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. We should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. We are taught this through the grace of Jesus Christ. Many churches today deny that this perfection is possible. But this tall order is what God wants for us, it is essential for our salvation. 1 John 3:2-3 We need to learn this so we can be like the Master tradesman. “ we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. “ Phil 2:12-13 We need to have a patient interaction with His will. He wants us to be like Him when He comes, that is His pleasure. It is a process that we are to work out our own salvation as He works in us. Page 138 of 177

Hebrews 10: 35-36 Gaining sanctification, the process, is to be according to His will also. The method of gaining sanctification (His will) Romans 12:2 By the renewing of your mind that you might prove: the good the acceptable the perfect will of God This verse says we need to prove His perfect will. Is there another (secondary) will? Like Israel in the Old Testament, God exercises something different in dealing with His apprenctices. Ezekiel 2:7-8 While they were in the land of Egypt God already wanted them to put away their idols Ezekiel 20: 25 He gave them statutes that were not good and judgment whereby they should not live, because of their unwillingness to do exactly what God said. Patriarchs & Prophets 382 “ God gave the people that which was not for their highest good, because they persisted in desiring it; they would not be satisfied with those things that would prove a benefit to them” That is the charcteristic of some apprentices, they think they can improve things. Jesus speaks of this in Mt 19:3-8 God's perfect will was that there was no divorce God's secondary will was that they could divorce because of the hardness of their heart, not for their good. Page 139 of 177

2 Samuel 12:7-8 God gave to the king of Israel plurality of wives, and He gave Israel a king; - this was not His perfect will, but His permissive will 1 Samuel 8: 4-9 vv 19-22 Hosea 13:9 & 11 “I gave thee a king in My anger” They wanted a king and king David was one of those kings He gave multiple wives to, yer Jesus came to reign on the throne of David, eventhough this was not His perfect will. I am letting you have what you want, if you don't fgive up on Me, I will still help you – this is the mind-set of our Master tradesman in this apprenticeship. Wars taking place between the nations, was this God's will for His apprentices? Exodus 23:20-23 This was God's perfect plan. What would God be if they listened to Him? He would be an enemy to their enemies and an adversary to their dversaries, this was His plan for them. Exodus 23: 27-28 This was so that they would not have to do anything to war against their enemies. God's plan for them was that was that they would not have to crook a finger to get the enemies out of their life. God would be their enemy and send fear upon them to run away, they would turn their back, they wouldn't come to fight the Israelites, they would turn their backs on them, e.g by sendign them hornets to drive them out, He would work through nature, that was God's plan. .Yet they wanted a king to go before them to fight the battles of the nations around them. God's will was not that, but he gave them a king. His original will for them is in 2 Chronicles 20: 17 For example, Jericho and Gideon. As they went they sang, when they arrived at the battlefield, the enemy was already slaughtered – that was God's plan all the way through. But as we know that didn't happen. Because they wanted a king, God had to instruct them to go and slay other nations. He used their own desires to orchestrate the destruction of other nations. He instructed them, He sent them. Page 140 of 177

If the apprentices don't want to do the Master's will, He alters His perfect will to coincide with the will of the apprentice. If I want something badly enough, God , in His sanctifying work will say “OK”. We see this in Psalm 78: 18-22 vv 27-31 This ingredient in the character of the Master needs to be known if we are going to be apprentices with Him, because along the path we will make experiences where we think we know better, we know a short cut. Apprentices often do that. The one who has a lot of experience (Jesus), knows all the ropes, but if the apprentice wants short cuts, the Master says “have a try” This is the mind of our Master tradesman. This is described perfectly in Ezekiel 14:1-6 God has a permissive will. This is exercised when ignorance and self-will press God hard enough then we cry to Him when we are in trouble. This is our Master tradesman. We then finally plead for His perfect will to be revealed. Acts 17:30 Apprentices just prior to His second coming will need to learn very quickly Romans 9:27-28 Discipleship for the last days is to hasten our perfection. Isaiah 58:12 To build the waste places means to correct the things that had been altered from His perfect will. God's remnant, therefore, will revert to the old, perfect ways. Acts 3:20-21 EW 67 “ Said the angel, "Deny self; ye must step fast." Some of us have had time to get the truth and to advance step by step, and every step we have taken has given us strength to take the next. But now time is almost finished, and what we have been years learning, they will have to learn in a few months. They will also have much to unlearn and much to learn again.” Apprentices can learn quickly if they don't want to go by His permissive will, Page 141 of 177

but follow God's perfect instruction and readily submit to His perfect will. Revelation 7:4 & 14 It is great tribulation is to learn fast Revelation 14: 1 & 5 God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have provided every facility that we would be like Him. Jude 24 The 144,000 are those whom He is able to keep from falling and present them faultless before His presence. Deuteronomy 4:29-31 When we seek Him with all thy heart and all thy soul even in the latter days being obedient unto His voice, then He can come. Acts 3:21 COLOSSIANS 69 “ Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.”

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24 VICTORY IN THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH The practical experience of the everlasting gospel is an apprenticeship that is a life-time work of sanctification. God varies His training in our apprenticeship according to His permissive and perfect will. To hasten our learning experience, submission to God's perfect will instead of His permissive will is required. Therefore we need to understand about ourselves, our dual nature through the plan of salvation and the conflict between our two natures: the spirit and the flesh. Jesus addresses our condition at birth: John 3:5 -7 We have two natures. When we are born, we are born of the flesh This is from 8:5-8 To be carnally minded is death To be spiritually minded is life and peace. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. The flesh has a condition that is not in harmony with God 1 Corinthians 2:14 The work of grace does something to us 2Corinthians 5:14-17 This is a new birth Romans 6:3-6 This is the transaction we have been justified by. Page 143 of 177

Ephesians 4:21-24 John 3:5 Romans 12:2 2 Timothy 1:7 1 Co 2:16 Phil 2:5 What does a baby mind (an unconverted mind) have to learn about itself? Ephesians 2:1-3 There are two items: the mind and the flesh When the mind is transformed, what about the flesh? Romans 7:5 and 22-23 Is there a function between the mind and the flesh that my physical flesh has motion without the mind? Galatians 5:16-17 5T 102 “Every Christian will be assailed by the allurements of the world, the clamours of the carnal nature, and the direct temptations of Satan. No one is safe. No matter what our experience has been, no matter how high our station, we need to watch and pray continually. We must be daily controlled by the Spirit of God or we are controlled by Satan.” SL 92 “The Christian will feel the promptings of sin, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit; but the Spirit striveth against the flesh, keeping up a constant warfare” John 1:13-15 How does the clamoring of the flesh come to us? Page 144 of 177

2 MCP 432 “ There are thoughts and feelings suggested and aroused by Satan that annoy even the best of men” These are only electrical currents and hormones. What are we to do with these that come to the sound mind? SL 92-93 “The Christian will feel the promptings of sin, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit; but the Spirit striveth against the flesh, keeping up a constant warfare. Here is where Christ's help is needed Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and faith exclaims, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" 1 Corinthians 15:56-57 How does this victory happen through Jesus Christ? Hebrews 5: 7-8 He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Suffering to His sound mind to be assailed by the promptings of sinful flesh (the same as mine). This is how He learned obedience. Hebrews 12:2 Romans 8:3 & 4 2 MCP 432 “There are thoughts and feelings suggested and aroused by Satan that annoy even the best of men; but if they are not cherished, if they are repulsed as hateful, the soul is not contaminated with guilt, and no other is defiled by their influence. Oh, that we each might become a savour of life unto life to those around us!”.SC 93 “Jesus Himself, while He dwelt among men, was often in prayer. Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs and weakness, in that He became a suppliant, a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, that He might come forth braced for duty and trial. He is our example in all things. He is a brother in our infirmities, "in all points tempted like as Page 145 of 177

we are;" but as the sinless one His nature recoiled from evil;” 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 2 Corinthians 10:3 & 5 Romans 8:11-13 Romans 6: 11-13 Luke 9:23 I Corinthians 15:31 I die daily Revelation 14:7 “ Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”

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25 144,000:WHO ARE THEY? We have learned that upon the appreciation of the facilities that the Godhead provides for us, we may appreciate the atonement of Jesus as He has become one with us, and through engaging with Jesus we engage in an apprenticeship with Him, learning the trade of salvation. The aspects of that were the apprenticeship of prayer, how to study the Bible, from Him the skill of repentance, from Him justification and finally sanctification. This process of sanctification is meant to bring us to what an apprentice finally achieves, to gain mastery over this whole exercise. Here it is written of in Ephesians 4:11-13 The apprentice ultimately will gain skill at the hand of the Master. Proverbs 4:18 Sanctification brings us to a conclusion. 2 Corinthians 3:18 We are changed from glory to glory. The purpose of apprenticeship is that some time in the history of the planet, those under Christ's tuition will be a perfect, holy people. COLOSSIANS 69 “ Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” Page 147 of 177

I John 3:2 When there is a people like Him, He will return. Jude 24 “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” God is able to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy! In the scriptures, is there such a people? Revelation 14:1,5 These have no guile, they are without fault before the throne of God. This is the product of Christ's apprenticeship in their life time, (the 144,000). What were the circumstances and timing of their development? Revelation 7:1-4 Just as the angels are holding the four winds of the earth and could have let them go. The time of God's wrath is to be poured out. Revelation 7:17 Jeremiah 25:31-33 This is the four winds being held back in Revelation 7:14 EW 38 “ I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments. He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands, and with a voice of deep pity cried, "My blood, Father, My blood, My blood, My blood!" Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a commission from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a loud voice, "Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads." Page 148 of 177

Jesus is waiting for His apprentices to graduate under the tuition of the Father and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The experience of this is found in Malachi 3:1-3 The work of the High Priest in the temple (2nd apartment) before the plagues are poured out. This is the commencement of the Judgment til His people are perfected and sealed in their forehead. What does this entail? 2 Corinthians 3:18 God's glory is explained in: Exodus 33: 18-19 All His goodness, His name Exodus 34:5-7 The name of the LORD is merciful, gracious, longsuffering. We are to be changed from glory to glory, that is, character to character to the full glory of His character. Exodus 28:36-38 Upon the High Priest's mitre on the forehead is written “Holiness to the LORD” Revelation 7:13-15 2 Corinthians 3:3 The sanctification process takes place in our heart, the part of the heart that you think with (frontal lobe) “not on tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart “

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Genesis 2:2-3 Exodus 20:8-11 God's name, jurisdiction and authority Exodus 31: 13, 16, 17 The sanctification process is signified by the Sabbath. 144,000 are from the 12 tribes of Israel. James 1:1 The 12 tribes which are scattered abroad (He is writing to the churches; people of God are Israel) Isaiah 8:14-16 Revelation 14:12-14 The work of the angels is to identify the people of these people. Revelation 18:4 Isaiah 26:20-21 4BC 1143 “What are the chambers in which they are to hide?-- They are the protection of Christ and holy angels. The people of God are not at this time all in one place. They are in different companies, and in all parts of the earth; and they will be tried singly, not in groups. Every one must stand the test for himself” EW 44 “ Oh, that all could get a view of it as God revealed it to me, that they might know more of the wiles of Satan and be on their guard! I saw that Satan was at work in these ways to distract, deceive, and draw away God's people, just now in this sealing time. I saw some who were not standing stiffly for present truth. Their knees were trembling, and their feet sliding, because they were not firmly planted on the truth, and the covering of Almighty God could not be drawn over them while they were thus Page 150 of 177

trembling. Satan was trying his every art to hold them where they were, until the sealing was past, until the covering was drawn over God's people, and they left without a shelter from the burning wrath of God, in t he seven last plagues” God's covering is His protection, the sealing. How long has this sealing process been going on for? from 1844 onwards. EW 254 “ The third angel closes his message thus: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." As he repeated these words, he pointed to the heavenly sanctuary. The minds of all who embrace this message are directed to the most holy place, where Jesus stands before the ark, making His final intercession for all those for whom mercy still lingers and for those who have ignorantly broken the law of God. This atonement is made for the righteous dead as well as for the righteous living. It includes all who died trusting in Christ, but who, not having received the light upon God's commandments, had sinned ignorantly in transgressing its precepts.” EW 89 “ I asked the angel if there were none left. He bade me look in an opposite direction, and I saw a little company travelling a narrow pathway. All seemed to be firmly united, bound together by the truth, in bundles, or companies. Said the angel, "The third angel is binding, or sealing, them in bundles for the heavenly garner." This little company looked careworn, as if they had passed through severe trials and conflicts. And it appeared as if the sun had just risen from behind a cloud and shone upon their countenances, causing them to look triumphant, as if their victories were nearly won.” EW 118 “I then saw the third angel. Said my accompanying angel, "Fearful is his work. Awful is his mission. He is the angel that is to select the wheat from the tares, and seal, or bind, the wheat for the heavenly garner. These things should engross the whole mind, the whole attention." 4 BC 1161 “Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads--it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved--just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. Indeed, Page 151 of 177

it has begun already; the judgments of God are now upon the land, to give us warning, that we may know what is coming “ Daniel 12:1-3 The resurrection is for those who are sealed, these will see Him. The others are raised to everlasting contempt e.g. Caiaphas GC 637 “ That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. . The proudest cities of the earth are laid low. The lordly palaces, upon which the world's great men have lavished their wealth in order to glorify themselves, are crumbling to ruin before their eyes. Prison walls are rent asunder, and God's people, who have been held in bondage for their faith, are set free. There is a mighty earthquake, "such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great" (Rev. 16:17, 18). The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory from the throne of God seems flashing through. The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on every side. . . . The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving way. Mountain chains are sinking. Inhabited islands disappear. The seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness are swallowed up by the angry waters. . . . Great hailstones, every one "about the weight of a talent," are doing their work of destruction (verses 19, 21) . . that sleep in the dust of the earth . . . awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan. 12:2). All who have died in the faith of the third angel's message come forth from the tomb glorified to hear God's covenant of peace with those who have kept His law. "They also which pierced Him" (Rev. 1:7), those that mocked and derided Christ's dying agonies, and the most violent opposers of His truth and His people, are raised to behold Him in His glory, and to see the honor placed upon the loyal and obedient.” GC 640.2 “The Israel of God stand listening, with their eyes fixed upward. Their countenances are lighted up with His glory, and shine as did the face of Moses when he came down from Sinai. The wicked cannot look upon them. And when the blessing is pronounced on those who have honored God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is a mighty shout of victory. “ EW 15 Page 152 of 177

“Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus' coming. The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spoke the time, He poured upon us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses' did when he came down from Mount Sinai. The 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united. On their foreheads was written, God, New Jerusalem, and a glorious star containing Jesus' new name. At our happy, holy state the wicked were enraged, and would rush violently up to lay hands on us to thrust us into prison, when we would stretch forth the hand in the name of the Lord, and they would fall helpless to the ground.”

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26 THE HOUR OF GOD'S JUDGMENT We are recording the detail of what is involved in the hour of God's judgment. In our previous studies we considered Revelation 14:6-7 We have learned the meaning of what it means to give God the glory. We will enlarge this point of how to give God the glory again so we can launch out into the understanding of the hour of His judgment is come. Let's come to Isaiah and appreciate some of the detail of our past studies in reference to how to give God the glory Isaiah 43:1-7 Notice where God's glory comes into this reading. “Even] every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory”. These are very important words for the introduction of this study of the hour of God's judgment and we will refer back to these texts. It says “I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. ” All those beautiful declarations of God's blessing, He has redeemed thee (this is one of our previous studies The Ransom), thou art Mine. All the work of the everlasting gospel has been to bring about, to create, a condition. Verses 10-12 See how this relates powerfully to the first angel's message “Fear God and give glory to Him” You are My witnesses, I have created you for My glory . There was somebody who commenced this program, it is the one John speaks of in John 17:1-5 Jesus has been sent to this earth and He gives God the glory. How did He do it? By coming to this earth ad developing an experience from babyhood to adulthood. Through this work of Jesus, in the same chapter he continues in

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v8-10 Jesus has done the work of glorifying the Father. Through Jesus Christ and His work of the gospel, what are His followers to do? v 20-24 God's glory is His character. The character of God has been revealed and developed in Jesus Christ from babyhood to adulthood. Therefore, through Him all His disciples can develop the character of God in them and give glory to God in this way. The work of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ is that we will develop into the character that Jesus Himself developed. from glory to glory. 2Corinthians 3:18 By beholding and learning of Jesus we are changed from glory to glory. By the time we come to the period of the first angle's message, He reiterates the everlasting gospel, which is the creation of Jesus Christ. Now is the hour of God’s judgment, give Him the glory. This is the period in which the 144,000 were to be revealed. Revelation 14:1 The 144,000 are identified God's name, God's character. Verse 5 The call of the three angel's messages is to be one of them. Verses 1-5 is the announcement of the 144,000, then comes the messages of the three angels. Do your part, give God the glory is the message, because of His judgment is come. The hour of Hid judgment. It is often read that we are going to be judged by God that is why it is His judgment, but according to our study here we will see this is not what the Bible talks about, about this judgment. It's talking about Him being judged. “I have created you for My glory” is what we read. Lucifer in heaven turned against God and defied God that the angels ands man cannot live in perfect harmony with God's law. Page 155 of 177

The whole universe was thrown into a quandary about God's justice. So through those who absorbed the truth as contained in the everlasting gospel, Lucifer is to be corrected. God leaves Himself open to be judged. If we take hold of the gospel as it is preached these series of 24 studies we have already had under the first angel, what takes place? Lucifer wants to tear down God's character and place God's character under scrutiny. All the universe had to see if Lucifer was right. God calls upon the people to judge if God's character according to Lucifer was right. If we take hold of the gospel as it is preached these series of 24 studies we have already had under the first angel, what takes place? John 1:12-13 announces that the people who believe on His name. The issue is that Who are the people who are called upon to give God the glory? Those who receive Him, who are born of God are the ones given power to become the sons of God. The process through which they were being made the sons of God, from birth, the power that will produce in them the glory of God is here in Romans 8:28-31 Those who are called according to His purpose. Here is the processs: God foreknew those who would receive Him. God knows in the future who will do something before it happens, we see this clearly in prophecy. Jesus was the first born among many brethren, and all those He foreknew He predestined to be of the image of His son. These He called, those He called he justified ( the process of justification and sanctification will produce a glorification), those He justified He glorified. This is God's creativity. What is our part? Those who received Him, co-operated with Him 2 Peter 1:5-11 This is for the person who receives Jesus. Give diligence to make your election sure. God is forming His children. Here is the process. He is calling those who respond to Him, He has them in His foreknowledge to make them children of His glory because He knows they will be diligent. Page 156 of 177

Phil 2:12-15 As we diligently do this, God is working in you to do of His good pleasure. Fear God and give glory to Him. You are going to shine, God is able to form and create those He predestines as the gospel of Jesus Christ comes to them. Matthew 24:12-13 It is the people who endure the process to the end, and He knows who they are. It is these people, the 144,000 who are living under the three angel's messages that will endure until the end and God has a foreknowledge of that, He knows there will be 144,000, He has predestined that. Romans 8:16-18 Can you see the connecting line. We will give God the glory as he gave God the glory if we suffer with Him, to go through the process together with Jesus, we will be heirs together with Christ. What does that mean? 1John 3:2 We shall be like Him in character. Now we are going through the process of child training in the family of God, we are His sons. When He comes we will be fully trained under the work of justification, sanctification and glorification. This work means we will be like Him when He comes. The method of workmanship of God shows that work. Ephesians 2:4-10 This is the creative power of God we are to show before the world. Those who receive Christ, although they were dead in sins, He hath quickened, made alive in Christ Jesus, to show the exceeding riches of His grace. To show, when He is judged, what sort of being He really is, because Lucifer and the whole universe is watching. When did He create us, how? In Christ Jesus which God foreordained. In Jesus Christ, in this workmanship that He is engaging in Jesus Christ is also discussed in from 9:10-24 Why did God say that before they were even born? By His foreknowledge, He knew what each one would do. Page 157 of 177

God knows in His foreknowledge who will respond to Him. All have been created to his glory Those created by Christ Jesus are the sons of God Those not created by new birth are vessels of dishonour (and will receive God's wrath). Therefore, all who are received in Jesus Christ need to be diligent to make our calling and election sure, so that when the hour of God's judgment comes it will reveal God's character in us. God is under scrutiny. The universe must see God's character in the experience of the human race carrying out the character of God. What chance do I have if God has already known what I will be? Romans 3:3-4 God is to be judged. God judges everything correctly and will be justified and will overcome when he is being judged. Verses 19-26 The whole world is guilty before God before the law. But the righteousness of God is manifested by faith of Jesus Christ to all that believe. All have fallen but God is going to be judged whether any of those can be just. Propitiation: a gift to obtain favour and acceptance of. To declare His righteousness that He might be the just and the justifier. God can be just and still justify sinners through Jesus Christ. Those who have responded to Jesus Christ have the sacrifice of Jesus applicable to them and therefore God can be just and the justifier of him who believes in Christ Jesus. God creates people. He creates Pharaoh and He creates those who are Christ's. He is the potter. He is the creator of the righteous and the wicked. Among the sinners there are some He will justify and those He won't . Those who reject Jesus He creates as wicked, those who accept Jesus He creates righteous. How does He do that? By placing Jesus as the propitiation for the people to make their decision. In the judgment hour this scrutiny will be satisfied. The believers living under the first angel's message in the time when the 144,000 are to stand up are called to rally and give God the glory that this work of God creating a people for His glory in the last days can stand there as He is being judged, while in the process of creating these people in the time of the judgment. Page 158 of 177

Romans 3:4 (compare with verse 26) Psalm 51:4 When God judges His people, He Himself is being judged by the way He judges His people. “He is the just and the justifier of him in Jesus” “When Thou art judged” - When God judges He is being judged. Can God be just to forgive such a terrible sin that David did. David knew what he was doing. This is a very important meditation. Can God be a just God and forgive a person who has sinned wilfully? How can God forgive King David and not forgive King Saul? Look at the prayer. What does King David acknowledge? I have sinned against you God, he has a knowledge of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on his behalf. He cries I want you to be justified, I have caused the suffering of Jesus, If you justify me, you are just because I am depending on Your great mercy, as demonstrated in Jesus Christ. David was a believer in Jesus Christ. King Saul failed miserably, he did not open his heart to Jesus Christ when he was tested. Romans 3:6 verse 5 What if some do not believe? How shall God judge the world? What is God's judgment going to be by which He personally is going to be judged? He is letting some people free and some people not. God judges in relation of those who believe to those who don't believe. Those who belong to Jesus and the consequences of this. Those who do not belong to Jesus and the consequences of this. Romans 2:16 The people are going to be judged by Jesus Christ. God will judge them by Jesus Christ according to His gospel. The scrutiny will be the effect of God's grace on the changed life of the believers. Ephesians 2:10 God will be judged by the work of Jesus in us and the way it has taken place in changing our lives. Page 159 of 177

That kind of judgment is expressed in Daniel 7:9-10 Here is a judgment in which books are opened. This is also written in Daniel 8:14 The our of God's judgment commenced in 1844. There the record of sinners like David is being totally cleansed by Jesus' sacrifice and their belief and reception of that sacrifice. 2 Corinthians 5:10 There are the books and the judgment of God in the books is upon the people who have depended upon God and if they have endured unto the end in Jesus Christ. 1Timothy 5:24 Some men's sins are opened beforehand in the first angel's message. The setting of this is in 1Peter 4:17-19 The judgment of the first angel is there as the books are open and starts with the children of God. What chance do those have who have rejected the gospel? No chance at all. What is involved in the judgment? As the judgment proceeds what is happening while we are being judged? When God judged He judges in a different way to what we think. Jude 15 When God judges, He convinces people, that’s how the judgments take place. He doesn't just condemn them, He convinces them, He helps them wake up to their situation. This is what happens in the judgment since 1844. 5BC 1085 “ The books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed Page 160 of 177

had there been opportunity. God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing. By His law He measures the character of every man. As the artist transfers to the canvas the features of the face, so the features of each individual character are transferred to the books of heaven. God has a perfect photograph of every man's character, and this photograph He compares with His law. He reveals to man the defects that mar his life, and calls upon him to repent and turn from sin “ That's the judgment that begins at God's house. He is working to change people's characters by justification, sanctification. He shows them, convinces them of their sins. As He does this there is an opportunity for them to repent. That's why He says their judgment is beforehand, and the others are convinced afterwards, too late. Those who take hold of the gospel have an opportunity to get rid of it as they are convinced of their sins, the others don't. When God is judged through this period of time from 1844 onwards, He can stand before Lucifer and he shrivels into silence because these people have demonstrated that they are willing to release their ungodliness, the other ones are not. That's what Jesus has died for. Proverbs 28:13 If we don't like to have our sins revealed to us at this time there is no hope for us. At the end we will have them revealed if we like it or not. PP 202 Had not Jacob previously repented of his sin in obtaining the birthright by fraud, God could not have heard his prayer and mercifully preserved his life. So in the time of trouble, if the people of God had unconfessed sins to appear before them while tortured with fear and anguish, they would be overwhelmed; “ When everything goes against you and is falling around you in the plagues, if there is unforgiven sin that comes up in your mind, it is something that will overwhelm us. “despair would cut off their faith, and they could not have confidence to plead with God for deliverance. But while they have a deep sense of their unworthiness, they will have no concealed wrongs to reveal. Their sins will have been blotted out by the atoning blood of Christ, and they cannot bring them to remembrance. “ Here is the issue, when sin has been brought to your remembrance we are to release it by believing and trusting the application of Jesus' sacrifice. Those that Page 161 of 177

will not go through that process do not want to give God the glory and they will be overwhelmed. GC 435-6 “ Those who had accepted the light concerning the mediation of Christ and the perpetuity of the law of God found that these were the truths presented in Revelation 14. The messages of this chapter constitute a threefold warning which is to prepare the inhabitants of the earth for the Lord's second coming. The announcement, "The hour of His judgment is come," points to the closing work of Christ's ministration for the salvation of men. It heralds a truth which must be proclaimed until the Saviour's intercession shall cease and He shall return to the earth to take His people to Himself. The work of judgment which began in 1844 must continue until the cases of all are decided, both of the living and the dead; hence it will extend to the close of human probation. That men may be prepared to stand in the judgment, the message commands them to "fear God, and give glory to Him," To take hold of the work of purification "and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." The result of an acceptance of these messages is given in the word: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." In order to be prepared for the judgment, it is necessary that men should keep the law of God. That law will be the standard of character in the judgment. he apostle Paul declares: "As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." And he says that "the doers of the law shall be justified." from 2:12-16. Faith is essential in order to the keeping of the law of God; for "without faith it is impossible to please Him." And "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Hebrews 11:6; from 14:23. There is the summary of this amazing work that by faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ we can stand justified before God by passing through the apprenticeship with Christ. We can succeed in standing before God and when he is scrutinised by the way He judges us, the condemnatory attitude of Lucifer has no power, because these people have permitted the sacrifice of Jesus and the life of Jesus to take them up to apprenticeship of giving God the glory.

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27 THE BOOKS OF HEAVEN In the judgment there is something that is being examined, that is the books of heaven. The announcement of the angel, Fear God and give Him the glory, we have studied all the way through this message the everlasting gospel. That which is connected with the everlasting gospel is that through the gospel we are entering into an apprenticeship with Christ, which is the process of having our characters changed into the character of Jesus. We recall a bit of this in Ephesians 4:21-24 As we have studied the gospel, we have heard Him, we have been taught by Him by the truth as it is in Jesus. The consequential activity is addressed here that we put away the old man with all his deceitful lusts, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That's where the new man is to be created, a new mind, a new heart. And there that new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. This connects with Ephesians 2:10 The gospel of Jesus Christ and the apprenticeship of Jesus Christ is the creation of God. He has taken the sinner and through the activity of the gospel, the atonement, He is working on the sinner who submits himself to Jesus and recreates him. This is God's work. Isaiah 43:6-7 As the everlasting gospel is preached by the first angel, he then announces “Give God the glory”. In other words, let God's creation inside of you come to its fruition, give Him the glory. As we have become so enlightened and affected with these studies of the gospel and its impact and our participation in the apprenticeship, there is a clear directive that I must do my part for this to happen. It's the preaching of the first angel to affect those people who have been under the everlasting gospel, who have heard of Him and been instructed by Him in the truth Colossians 1:29 Page 163 of 177

God is crating in me , He is working in me, I am His workmanship. What am I to do? I labour, striving according to His working. Philippians 2:12 - 13 “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.” Working together with God I labour, strive according to His working within me. That is why the message is “Give God the glory” Don't just wait for some magic to happen, work together with Him as He creates. 2 Peter 1:10 Here is the call of my participation. The people who don't participate are not giving God the glory. This statement leaves us with no lack of understanding: 7BC 979 “To give glory to God is to reveal His character in our own, and thus make Him known. And in whatever way we make known the Father or the Son, we glorify God” The character of God has been maligned by Lucifer, therefore it is our privilege to glorify Him now. We need to release this maligning attack of Satan. DA 761.4 “In the opening of the great controversy, Satan had declared that the law of God could not be obeyed, that justice was inconsistent with mercy, and that, should the law be broken, it would be impossible for the sinner to be pardoned. Every sin must meet its punishment, urged Satan; and if God should remit the punishment of sin, He would not be a God of truth and justice. When men broke the law of God, and defied His will, Satan exulted. It was proved, he declared, that the law could not be obeyed; man could not be forgiven. Because he, after his rebellion, had been banished from heaven, Satan claimed that the human race must be forever shut out from God's favor. God could not be just, he urged, and yet show mercy to the sinner.” It is possible for God to be just and yet justify the sinner. It is our privilege to correct this maligning of God's character, to give Him the glory. Page 164 of 177

Remember what His character is that we are to demonstrate: Exodus 34:6&7 Lucifer said He can't be a just God if He's going to forgive people, but His character is of such a nature that He can be merciful and gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy, but by no means clearing the guilty. Three kinds of sinfulness: Iniquity means lawlessness Transgression is transgression of the lawlessness. Sin is transgression of the law and everything else. God can forgive the lot and yet be just, that is what is our work to demonstrate. The judgment must reveal this. God's glory is under scrutiny. It's how He deals with sin and with sinners is what must be demonstrated to be contrary to what Lucifer says. Psalm 51: 3&4 Because of what David has done in repentance, God's character is just. When God judges, speaks, draws His conclusions, King David says I am confessing my sin to you so that when You judge You are going to be clear. In the scrutiny that will be placed upon You, God, what I do with my sin now, You will be justified, You will be clear as You will judge. That is the issue that is involved here. In the judgment of the first angel's message, God is going to be cleared by the way He deals with our sins., and we are to give Him the glory. To do this work, God actually has records of all of our activities. He is a very thorough lawyer, everything has been kept. It is written of in here. As the judgment is set, what happens? Is it just God speaking? Daniel 7:9-10 There are all the myriads of witnesses, angel, and the books are opened. Remember, God needs to be cleared by the way He deals with sinners, so God has kept records and He spends time to examine, with all the witnesses there, the dealings of God in every individual's life. As these thousands upon thousands of angels are watching the examination of the books, notice what they exclaim Revelation 5:11-13 Angels are recognising as the books are being examined, that His character is cleared, that He is worthy, that He has spent time with them in examining the Page 165 of 177

books. Satan's attack upon the character of God is totally cleared. They burst out and worship because God is so just. What are the books and what do they reveal? BOOK OF RECORD Psalms 87:3-6 A register of those born outside the church/born of the flesh v5 A register of those born inside the church /born of God/born again. John 3:5-7 John 1:12-13 Sons of God, born of God Luke 10:20 BOOK OF LIFE Revelation 20:12 BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE Malachi 3:16 Those that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name Psalms 56:8 BOOK OF WORKS 2 Corinthians 5:10 Romans 2:6-10 Isaiah 65:5-7 Deuteronomy 32:32-34 Hosea 7:2 Mathew 12:36-37 Page 166 of 177

1 Corinthians 4:5 Daniel 8:14 The judgment commenced in 1844 Daniel 7:10 The books were opened to be dealt with, to be cleansed. Hebrews 9:13-14 v 23 the heavenly things to be purified with better sacrifices v 24 the better sacrifice is Christ Jesus. Proverbs 9:11 Is 43:25 To give God the glory includes: Acts 3:1-21 5BC 1085 “God's law reaches the feelings and motives, as well as the outward acts. It reveals the secrets of the heart, flashing light upon things before buried in darkness. God knows every thought, every purpose, every plan, every motive. The books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity. God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing. By His law He measures the character of every man. As the artist transfers to the canvas the features of the face, so the features of each individual character are transferred to the books of heaven. God has a perfect photograph of every man's character, and this photograph He compares with His law. He reveals to man the defects that mar his life, and calls upon him to repent and turn from sin “

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28 THE CLOSE OF PROBATION This is the closing messages of the first angel. We cast our mind back to Genesis 2:17 3:6 The beginning of the demise of human character and righteousness. Job 33:24 The beginning of eternal life in the ransom. The human race has hope because of the ransom, that anyone who chooses to embrace the ransom and enter into a covenant relationship with God through the ransom, through Jesus, can commence a path which is written in John 3:16 There was the beginning of eternal life. Isaiah 61:1-4 Those people that He has redeemed will rebuild the waste cities of desolation of many generations. Through the beautiful ransom that verses 1-3 spoke of , through the wonderful activities of the Godhead and especially of Jesus Christ, these people now launch out into practical progress which is identified “ they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations” This concept is further addressed in Proverbs 4:18 A tree that is planted is only very small. Like the dawning of the day, like the birth of a little baby. It is something that commences and gets brighter and brighter, grows taller and taller. This is justification. Righteousness becomes more and more developed. DA 297 “However imperfect and sinful we may be, the Lord holds out to us the offer of partnership with Himself, of apprenticeship to Christ. He invites us to come under the divine instruction, that, uniting with Christ, we may work the works of God.” Page 168 of 177

No matter how sinful we may be we may work the works of God. The impact of the ransom, the covenant, the everlasting gospel produces a people who can now progress under the instruction of God. That development is beautifully expressed in Proverbs 4. The progress is not something you feverishly wear yourself out doing. We need to place ourselves under the will of God. RH April 28 1891 “Imperceptibly to ourselves, we are changed day by day from our own ways and will into the ways and will of Christ, into the loveliness of his character. Thus we grow up into Christ, and unconsciously reflect his image.” The growth is like a tree, you don't see it growing but later you come back and see that it is taller. Our experience in the apprenticeship with Jesus is one where our own evil ways and will changes into the ways and will of Christ. We have to keep remembering this because we often don't feel that we are changing, but this is the way. Brighter and brighter unto the perfect day is God's way. Philippians 3:12-16 This is an ongoing experience. All this progress is chronicled in the books of heaven, the books of record, the registry of his birth, and there is another book where his deeds both good and evil are recorded as the person is developing, the registry of the book of remembrance Revelation 14:7 Apprentices have the privilege of proceeding through their experience of learning and developing righteousness, knowing they are heading for the day of graduation in which God will be glorified because He has done the work of progress in the apprentice's training, that the Master has trained these apprentices so well. As this has been going on since 1844, their growth as the books in which this growth is identified, as these books are examined, God is working, showing us where we are still not measuring up to the book of Gods' law. 5BC 1085 “he books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had Page 169 of 177

there been opportunity. God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing. By His law He measures the character of every man. He reveals to man the defects that mar his life, and calls upon him to repent and turn from sin” The books record everything of the apprentice's life. 1T 187 “The books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity. God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing. By His law He measures the character of every man. As the artist transfers to the canvas the features of the face, so the features of each individual character are transferred to the books of heaven. God has a perfect photograph of every man's character, and this photograph He compares with His law. He reveals to man the defects that mar his life, and calls upon him to repent and turn from sin.” As the apprenticeship proceeds, point by point of character development is dealt with. By understanding this, we can willingly and joyfully let the Lord take us through. When the Lord shows us our character defects, we can say “Thank you for showing me”, rather than being uncomfortable because He's pointing it out to you. By understanding that we are in an apprenticeship, an apprentice knows that he doesn't know, he knows he has to learn, so we don't have to feel miserable because He is pointing out our evil ways, we are not condemned, He is showing us the way. 1T 187 “God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart.” My character is calculated to be manifested while we are under this apprenticeship. “ Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel: "God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people.” Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at Page 170 of 177

some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus. Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness. If any will not be purified through obeying the truth, and overcome their selfishness, their pride, and evil passions, the angels of God have the charge: "They are joined to their idols, let them alone," and they pass on to their work, leaving these with their sinful traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels. Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation. “ That is the work of the Master Tradesman as He leads His apprentices to the final graduation. THE GRADUATION CEREMONY Revelation 14:12-14 His return depends on the graduates reaching their condition for graduation. Revelation 3:19-20 Colossians 69 “Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” The activity under the first, second and third angels' message is for God's people to arise and participate in this work. Is 60:12 Revelation 18:1-4 Is 58:1-8 12-14 Ezekiel 18:21-22 & 24 Exodus 32:33 GC 483.1&2 “As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God. Beginning with those who first lived upon the earth, our Advocate presents the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living. Every name is mentioned, Page 171 of 177

every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected. When any have sins remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the book of life, and the record of their good deeds will be erased from the book of God's remembrance. The Lord declared to Moses: "Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book." Exodus 32:33. And says the prophet Ezekiel: "When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, . . . all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned." Ezekiel 18:24. All who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life. The Lord declares, by the prophet Isaiah: "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Isaiah 43:25. Said Jesus: "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels." "Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven." Revelation 3:5; Matthew 10:32, 33” Revelation 22:11-14 Daniel 8:14 Sins are blotted out of the books of remembrance. Deuteronomy 32:32-34 At the close of probation all these evil sins will be removed from the books of heaven. Revelation 11:1 There will only be recorded in heaven them that worship therein. Hebrews 9: 22-24 27-28 Probation closes when the apprenticeship of the believers is completed. Page 172 of 177

29 THE GREAT COMMISSION Let's consider the great commission as it is written in Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen” Does the 1st angel's message have anything to do with this commission? The first angel's message takes place at the end of the gospel period, the hour of God's judgment is come. Here it says “I am with you to the end of the world” At the time of the end. This work of the commission is relevant under the first angel's message. Revelation 14:6-7 Let's recall what we read in the very beginning. We recall that it is the angels that are preaching and here under inspiration it is identified 2SM 387 “The angels are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming to the world a message of warning, and having a direct bearing upon the people living in the last days of this earth's history. No one hears the voice of these angels, for they are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven. Men and women, enlightened by the Spirit of God and sanctified through the truth, proclaim the three messages in their order” Jesus gives them all power to give the last commission. They are working in the last days. People who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven. This is the whole focus of the great commission in the last days, a people that are sent by Jesus, empowered or enlightened by the Spirit At the end of the world there will be empowerment because all power of Jesus is with you, therefore, go. Page 173 of 177

Having spent 28 studies exploring the Godhead and all the facilities that proceed from these three beings of the Godhead, looking at the whole plan of salvation, looking at discipleship, understanding the culminating judgment of all who are in apprenticeship to Christ, that they will give God the glory with all the apprenticeship training they have received, you can see that this is the commission. The Lord has done His work with His apprentices and here are a people who are going to give God the glory by fulfilling their commission. “Go , ye therefore” What does that mean? Because all power is given unto you and I am there with you, therefore go. My power is with you is what He is saying, because He has the everlasting gospel. What is the everlasting gospel? Romans 1:16-17 The preaching of the gospel is the power of God to everyone that believeth. This is self-evident that under the power of Jesus Christ there is a display of the power to change people's lives. This is what we also read in 2Corinthians 3:18 The people filled with the Spirit of God are the angels doing the work, proclaiming. All the power that is given to them is the power of the gospel, and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:31-32 The power of the beautiful gospel is given to us in Jesus Christ WITH Jesus Christ God gives us all things. Having given us all things in Jesus Christ, we turn to Matthew 10:7-8 You can only give what you have (what God has given to us). That is, all power to preach, heal, etc. As apprentices He has given us the skills to do these works We can only give what we have already gained. Page 174 of 177

John 17:2-5 Jesus passed to us what the Father gave Him. V 6-10 v18 v22 John 20:21-23 Isaiah 60:1-2 2Corinthians 4:6-7 This is what the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit is all about; what is in our heart. Jeremiah 31:33-34 1 John 2:20 & 27 When you express yourself you express what is in your heart Isaiah 59:21 Deuteronomy 30:11-14 Proverbs 22:17-21 This is an enabling commission. When we are engaged in the apprenticeship, His words will be fitted within your lips then you can speak the words of life by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Romans 10:6-10 2 Corinthians 4:10-13 The believers present the 3 angels' messages; they live in the messages, therefore they are given the utterance. We don't have to try to shine, it is an internal condition. John 4:13-14 Luke 24:45-48 They witnessed what they have experienced. Acts 1:8 2 Peter 1:16-18 Page 175 of 177

1John 1:1-3 This is the three angels' message 2SM 387-388 “I have acted a part in this solemn work. Nearly all my Christian experience is interwoven with it. There are those now living who have an experience similar to my own. They have recognized the truth unfolding for this time; they have kept in step with the great Leader, the Captain of the Lord's host. {2SM 387.2} In the proclamation of the messages, every specification of prophecy has been fulfilled. Those who were privileged to act a part in proclaiming these messages have gained an experience which is of the highest value to them; and now when we are amid the perils of these last days, when voices will be heard on every side saying, "Here is Christ," "Here is truth," while the burden of many is to unsettle the foundation of our faith which has led us from the churches and from the world to stand as a peculiar people in the world, like John our testimony will be borne: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; . . . that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us" (1 John 1:1-3)I testify the things which I have seen, the things which I have heard, the things which my hands have handled of the Word of life. And this testimony I know to be of the Father and the Son. We have seen and do testify that the power of the Holy Ghost has accompanied the presentation of the truth, warning with pen and voice, and giving the messages in their order. To deny this work would be to deny the Holy Ghost, and would place us in that company who have departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits. “ We see just such a people who have experienced this in: EW 258 “I saw a company who stood well guarded and firm, giving no countenance to those who would unsettle the established faith of the body. God looked upon them with approbation. I was shown three steps-- the first, second, and third angels' messages. Said my accompanying angel, "Woe to him who shall move a block or stir a pin of these messages. The true understanding of these messages is of vital importance. The destiny of souls hangs upon the manner in which they are received."

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2SM 111 “ There are persons ready to catch up every new idea. The prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation are misinterpreted. These persons do not consider that the truth has been set forth at the appointed time by the very men whom God was leading to do this special work. These men followed on step by step in the very fulfilment of prophecy, and those who have not had a personal experience in this work, are to take the Word of God and believe on "their word" who have been led by the Lord in the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages. These messages, received and acted upon, are doing their work to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God. If we search the Scriptures to confirm the truth God has given His servants for the world, we shall be found proclaiming the first, second, and third angels' messages”

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