Opportunities for Service and the Pressure of the Hour
By Milton C. Wilcox
M. C. WILCOX
(Reading for Tuesday, December 17)
There has never been a time since Jesus Christ led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men when there was not opportunity for service before every soul among Christ’s servants. But one thing is necessary on the part of the servant—consecration of body, soul, and spirit to the service of the Master.
One thing is mightily helpful on the part of the church—such simplicity of organization and broad and comprehensive plans of work as will encourage every member to feel, “There is work for me to do.”
Consecration
Consecration does not mean that our own work shall be first. When we yield ourselves to Christ, it is not to do service for ourselves. We are to be “his own servants.” God must be first in everything. The command is his that: “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” Physical powers, intellect, affections, are all to be given to him. Only so can we render the fullest, most satisfactory service.
Consecration does not mean that our work is to be considered equal in importance to the work of God. While he yokes up with us, counts us colaborers, we are yoke-fellows to do his work, not ours, and our work must be subject, secondary, always.
And yet God’s work is so ordered, his call is so considerate, his service is so blessed, that with our work second to that of the King of the universe, it is more satisfactory than it could be should it be first with us; because our good is first with him. In his wisdom there may not be so much of material prosperity, but more wealth of character, and character is eternal.
God’s work is so ordered, too, that wise, true, consecrated service demands that we should live healthfully, and so keep all our physical and mental powers at their maximum of value.
Why, O why, can not God’s people consecrate themselves to such service as this? Then indeed would the Spirit of God “clothe itself with” many a man and woman, as it did with Gideon of old (Judges 6:34, margin); and mighty works would be wrought for God.
The Leaders
This work of consecration must begin with the leaders among God’s people, the ministers in our conferences, the elders and deacons in our churches, the superintendents and teachers in our Sabbath-schools.
“For that the leaders took the lead in Israel,
For that the people offered themselves willingly,
Bless ye Jehovah.” Judges 5:2.
Even so will God win great victories for Israel now, when the leaders lead in consecration, and the ministers of God weep between the porch and the altar, and cry to God to spare his people. Then will Jehovah pity his people, and send “grain” and “new wine and oil.” See Joel 2:15-24.
The Church Helping
With the incoming of the Spirit there will be clearer vision, and plans more and more simple. We shall not feel that we must do some great and costly thing, with outer and visible display, in order to do service for God. It will be the kindly, helpful word, the Christian visit to a darkened home, the distribution of papers and tracts, the selling of papers and books, and a thousand other things, which the Spirit of God will suggest to hearts cleansed from pride and selfishness. We might build a sanitarium, open a bath-room, or establish a restaurant, or preach a brilliant sermon, and we would count that great work for God; but we would be more likely to take the glory to ourselves than in doing the little things, and receive no blessing.
It is ever the little deed which offers the opportunity, the deed that the devil ever declares we have no time to do, or that it would amount to nothing. Commercialism and fashion, joint tyrants and curses the world over, so fill the hearts and minds of some of the most capable of the professed children of God that they “have no time” to work for him. To such God speaks now: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee. Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Eph. 5:14-16.
The expression “redeeming the time” does not mean getting back spent days or hours or minutes; that kind of time once past never returns till we meet it at the bar of God. “Redeeming the time” means, literally, “buying up the opportunity.” There are opportunities for service on every side, which our poor, selfish, blinded eyes see, and thousands more beyond, which we shall see when we “do the next thing,”—the duties which lie close by.
“Buying” implies paying a price. “Buying up the opportunity” means that it will cost us ease, and pleasure, and selfish pursuits, and worldly ambition, and love of ease, and various things dear to our carnal nature. If we would rouse from our slothfulness and ease to work for God, give up all for God, and so, however busy with secular duties we may be, seek and find some opportunity to work for him. Our very life depends upon our breaking the bands which bind us, that we may have the opportunity to work for the Master.
The whole world stands with open doors inviting us to enter; but before the “great work,” which the heart sometimes longs to do for God, must come the testing on the little homely duties which are round us on every side. Said an earnest Methodist minister in Battle Creek one time, “If I had the organization of the Seventh-day Adventists, giving opportunity to labor to every soul, and the great Methodist Church, I would move the world.”
Organization is much, and our leaders leading in simplicity of organized work, enlisting every soul in the giving of the message, is more. But these must be subordinated to the outpouring and guidance of the Spirit of God. He has new things, great in their simplicity and effectiveness, which we have not yet seen. As truly as Israel of old, we “have not passed this way heretofore,” and there are in God’s great storehouse of supplies, in his wonderful counsel for those who follow the ark, things which our eyes have not seen, and our ears have not heard. But the secret to all the blessings lies in present consecration, present doing of the little duties, buying up present opportunities to work for our beloved Master.
The Pressure of the Hour
The pressure of the hour demands this. The harvest is ripe, the laborers are few.
“Men who are faithful are fainting today;
Worn with their labors, they fall by the way:
Fill ye the ranks, and with heart and with hand,
Gather in the blessed harvest, Christ gives command.”
“Pray for help, Christian.” Yes, but he who truly prays, first gives himself to answer God’s call, if it comes to him.
We may not dally now. We may not trifle with God on our soul’s eternal interest. The pressure of the hour is too great. What hour is it?—“The hour of His judgment,” which will “begin at the house of God.” It is the last generation on the mercy side of probation’s decisions. It is the time when God’s gracious threefold warning is spreading to all the world to save men from the fearful doom of the accumulated sins of the ages. It is the fulness of time when the great Master is preparing a people to stand when he shall come unto his own, and his undimmed glory shall cause all identified with sin to wither and burn in the forthshining of his presence. It is a time when recreant, faithless souls among his people shall have their names blotted from the Lamb’s book of life forever; when the devoted and faithful shall have every record of sin on the books of God against them blotted eternally from those books, because the divine Spirit, through grace, has blotted the sin forever from the heart and from the life.
From the last and the weakest generation of men, from the generation which has most perverted divine truth, God12is gathering a people who will be loyal to him whatever may come, a people whom he can seal for eternity with his holy name.
Salvation from Great Delusions
As we near the end of earth’s last hour of trial, Satan will put forth greater effort to deceive. Every delusion of the past, every means which he can invent or devise, will be used to deceive or destroy the elect of God. And the time is even now. Intensity is taking possession of all the forces of evil. It is the last struggle of the devil and his angels before the end.
Every great truth of God, every genuine monument of strength among his people, will be counterfeited by the enemy, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness (having the appearance of righteousness), and with such overwhelming display of force, of numbers, of “outward show,” that all the world will be swallowed up in the deception. The power of Satan will be called “the great power of God.” The laws of the world will be denominated the laws of the Most High, and the rulers of the earth his representatives. And how rapidly are all the forces of evil developing into that condition where the hypnotism of the devil will swing them into united opposition to the work of God. Even now we see the meaning of the vision of the prophet: “multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.”
God, too, is terribly in earnest. All the agencies of heaven are enlisted in the last struggle of the ages. As Jesus declared, when he neared the last great conflict with the prince of darkness, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” so God’s people may feel as they near the end. Assuredly the baptism of suffering and trial and service lies before; and as the awful evil and deadly miasma of the time presses upon them, and they realize their own unworthiness, they enter into the heart of the Master again: “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?” Shall I say, “Father, save me from this hour”? Selfishness might so plead, but not loyal consecration. The prince of the world came with the temptation, but found no response. And the answer of the Man of Calvary was, “But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.” And the answer came from the throne, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” And God first glorified it in the suffering and sacrifice his Son for us.
Great and awful is the pressure of this hour. The great needy world stands open, waiting, longing, pleading for light. How few we are! How small are our resources! How great the consecration demanded! Shall we pray, “Father, save us from this hour,” or shall we recognize that this is God’s opportunity for us? Shall we demonstrate in experience that the consecrated recognition of our necessity is his opportunity to work for us, to work with us, to enable us to do his work? Of that remnant it shall be said, “As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt will I show unto them marvelous things. The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might.” And when the perils thicken, and the forces of evil are concentrated against them, “Jehovah of hosts will defend them.” Our part is consecration of all to his service. And if we are faithful in this time of service, he will keep us in that awful hour which lies just before. “Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come.” Let this be the prayer of every one:—
“Take my soul and body’s powers,
Take my memory, mind, and will;
All my goods and all my hours;
All I know and all I feel;
All I think or speak or do;
Take my heart, and make it new.”
This prayer acknowledges our dependence upon God day by day.
Trace the development of a loaf of bread from the planting of the seed containing the life-germ placed there by God’s hand, in God’s earth, and nourished by his sunshine and rain, through the various stages,—growing grain, wheat kernels, flour, bread.
How appropriate this prayer when “only one summer-blessing of God stands between the world and starvation.”
In this prayer we recognize the Father’s loving care for the creatures he has made:—
This question relates to man's fitness for heaven, as viewed in the search-light of a holy God. A feeling of uncertainty, doubt, or suspense with reference to our future is the most deplorable state of mind the human soul can experience in this life. Fear and torture haunt the person who has not found the peaceful answer to this question. This state of mind may be exchanged for the sweet experience which comes to him who has accepted the conditions that secure the infallible assurance, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”
Before we accept a false hope, which can but fail us in the day when every man's work shall be tried, of what sort it is, let us carefully and prayerfully examine the conditions upon which a sure hope is founded. We are admonished: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
We are also admonished: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
We are in the time of sifting, as well as in the time when God is sealing his people for the kingdom. The angel is holding the elements of destruction from bursting upon the world till the work of sealing the servants of God is finished. Rev. 7: 1-3. In “Testimony,” No. 31, under the title, “The Seal of God,” there are some most important statements and warnings which are partially prophetic, which I can do no better than to quote here. These statements were published some twenty-five years ago:—
“The crisis is fast approaching. . . . No superiority of rank, dignity, or worldly wisdom, no position in sacred office, will preserve men from sacrificing principle, when left to their own deceitful hearts. Those who have been regarded as worthy and righteous, prove to be ringleaders in apostasy, and examples in indifference and in the abuse of God's mercies. Their wicked course he will tolerate no longer, and in his wrath he deals with them without mercy. It is with reluctance that the Lord withdraws his presence from those who have been blessed with great light, and who have felt the power of the word in ministering to others. They were once his faithful servants, favored with his presence and guidance; but they departed from him, and led others into error, and therefore are brought under the divine displeasure. . . . Our own course of action will determine whether we shall receive the seal of the living God, or be cut down by the destroying weapons. . . .”13“The seal of God will never be placed upon the forehead of an impure man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of the ambitious, world-loving man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of men or women of false tongues or deceitful hearts. All who receive the seal must be without spot before God—candidates for heaven.”
“Every one must now search the Bible for himself upon his knees before God, with the humble, teachable heart of a child, if he would know what the Lord requires of him.”
The command of God to the angel to “go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof,” is followed with the command to spare not, and to slay utterly all upon whom the seal of God has not been placed. Eze. 9: 4-6.
While justification by faith gives us a title to heaven, sanctification through the Spirit of God alone can give us a fitness for heaven. Listen to these words: “The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fulness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon his church.”—“Desire of Ages,” pages 802, 803.
“The Father is all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal sight. The Son is all the fulness of the Godhead manifested. . . . The Comforter that Christ promised to send after he ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fulness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour. There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will co-operate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Series B, No. 7.
Said Christ, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” “This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train.” With all this power “awaiting our demand and reception,” why should cruel unbelief hold our feet in chains of bondage longer?
The need of receiving this regenerating personality and power is emphasized in the following from the same source:—“In my dream last night a sentinel stood at the door of an important building, and said to every one who came for entrance, Have you received the Holy Ghost? A measuring line was in his hand, and only very, very few were admitted into the building. Your size as a human being is nothing; your size as the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus, according to the knowledge you have had, will give you an appointment to sit with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and you will never know the extent of the great advantages given you in the banquet prepared for you.
“You may be tall and well proportioned in self, but none such can enter here. None can be admitted who are grown-up children, with all the habits and customs, the disposition, the characteristics, which pertain to children. You have nurtured your suspicions, your criticisms, your bad temper, your dignity, and you can not be permitted to spoil the feast. All who enter through the door have on the wedding garment, woven in the loom of heaven. Your leaven of distrust, your want of confidence, your power of accusing, closes against you the door of admittance. Within this door nothing can enter that can possibly mar the happiness of the dwellers here by marring their perfect trust in one another. Those who have educated themselves to pick flaws in the characters of others, have thus revealed a deformity of character which has made families unhappy, which has turned souls from the truth to choose fables. You can not join the happy family in the heavenly courts, for God has wiped all tears from their eyes. You can never see the King of beauty, if you are not yourself a representative of the loveliness of Christ's character. Abiding with Christ is choosing only the disposition of Christ, so that he identifies his interests with yours. When you give up your own will, your own wisdom, and learn of Christ, as he has invited you to do, then you shall find entrance into the kingdom of God. Entire, unreserved surrender he requires. Give up your life for him to order, mold, and fashion. Take upon your neck his yoke, submit to be led and taught, as well as to lead and teach. Learn that unless you become as a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Abide in him, to be and do only what he wills. These are the conditions of discipleship.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in Gospel Herald, April 23, 1902.
NEW MISSION AT GUADALAJARA, MEXICO
The last days are fraught with perils on every hand. Man's faith in a personal God in heaven will be destroyed, if possible. His hope in a personal divine Saviour, who was crucified for our offenses, raised for our justification, and is now seated at the right hand of his Father in heaven as our High Priest to make an atonement for our sins, will be assailed by philosophy, science, and every device of Satan's master mind. A personal Holy Ghost in charge of the work of grace, under God and Christ, as their representative and appointed agent, to accomplish the work of regeneration of man's soul, body, and spirit, will be discounted and made to appear only as an influence.
When faith in the trio of the Godhead is destroyed, and the One delegated with authority to resist and conquer man's foe is rejected as naught, we are left to the cruel buffetings of Satan, with no power to resist our adversary. In this way man's faith in any special work of God to be done in the earth or in the sanctuary in heaven under the threefold message of Revelation 14 is destroyed.
Man's great need is a living, abiding faith in God's Word, that knows no doubt, and fails not in the hour of darkness. With such a faith we shall place our substance, our families, and ourselves upon the altar of service to God. Having surrendered all to “him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,” having done all, we shall be able to stand.
The Bible tells us that the time will come when the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. Dan. 2:44.
Compare the royalty of earthly kingdoms with that of God’s everlasting kingdom. (If it is desired to extend the lesson, dwell upon the beauties of the new earth and the capital city.)
Heirs of the future everlasting kingdom are serving the King now. Rom. 6:16.
The kingdom set up when Christ shall judge the living and the dead. 2 Tim. 4:1.
The kingdom of God’s grace is now being established, as day by day hearts are yielding to him, but the complete establishment of the kingdom of his glory will not take place until the second coming of Christ.14
The kingdom given to the saints of the Most High. Dan. 7:27.
The heavenly gates open to receive the King. Ps. 24:7-10.
How may we help to answer the prayer, “Thy kingdom come”? Matt. 24:14.
A noted writer has said, “If you do not wish for His kingdom, don’t pray for it. But if you do, you must do more than pray for it; you must work for it.”
There are many dark places in the world where the gospel of the kingdom has not yet been preached. We may pray, give, and go.
