General Conference Bulletin, vol. 7

Bible Study hour - READINESS FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD

J. O. CORLISS

May 19, 8:30 A. M.

In view of the overwhelming evidence that has been brought before us of the near approach of the Lord, it has seemed to me we can study no subject more profitably this morning than that of our preparation to meet the impending events. I found my remarks upon the words, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” 1 John 3:1. GCB May 20, 1913, page 49.1

The world did not reach that point of spiritual elevation where Christ stood, and they could not know him, because there was something that prompted him and led him that the world did not comprehend. I wish that every Seventh-day Adventist were prompted and led as he was. GCB May 20, 1913, page 49.2

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is,”—not as he was nineteen hundred years ago, but we shall see him as he is in all his glory, and to see him in his glory, there must be an absolute change in us in every respect. In our very faces there will be a radical change, because the motives, the promptings of the mind, will alter the countenance. To be brought to that point where we can see the Lord as he is, means perfection. I know some think that to preach perfection is fanaticism; but I am glad that the Bible teaches this as the aim of the Christian life. Brethren, the time has come for us to cut loose from all these things that have chained us down in the past. GCB May 20, 1913, page 49.3

Paul wrote: “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Colossians 1:28. When our cases come up in the great assize, any defect will be noticed; for God cannot take one into heaven with a defect upon him. One transgression cast Adam and Eve out of the garden in the beginning. It was just one defect, and it all grew out of a doubt, a single doubt, of God’s word. There are some of us who have gone even beyond that in iniquity. But the Lord Jesus Christ has provided fully for all these needs: “the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6. He bore it all to set us free. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. I hear the words, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” That was what he endured for your salvation and mine. GCB May 20, 1913, page 49.4

PHOTO-A SECTION OF THE CAMP

Now take the language of the text: “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Surely if we are like him then, we shall have to become like him here on earth. We must be cleansed from everything that would befoul the mind or mislead us in any way. “And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight.” Colossians 1:21, 22. GCB May 20, 1913, page 49.5

Why did he reconcile us?—Because there was a work to be done. It is a great attainment to be brought to the place where, when the penetrating eye of Jehovah shall examine our characters, we shall be found “unblamable and unreprovable in his sight.” Every day most of us find things in our lives for which we reprove ourselves, and we say, “O God, forgive my sin!” O, that we could realize what a fitting up means, that divine fitting up, so that we may be “unblamable and unreprovable in his sight”! This is what the apostle labored for in behalf of the children of men, that he might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. GCB May 20, 1913, page 49.6

Some will say that this perfection is an impossibility. Yes, as the Saviour said to one man, “With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” When an individual lays himself upon the altar, when he divests himself of self, and falls into the hands of God, we cannot tell what God can do for that individual, because the human mind has never penetrated the possibilities of eternal, infinite power. And yet we know that there is a possibility of God’s enabling a man to attain perfection. GCB May 20, 1913, page 49.7

Some one may think that when the judgment comes, it will so fix up his case that he will be counted perfect at that time. My friends, the judgment is to take your case and mine and judge it according to the standard in the books above. The very record that you and I have made will come up there, and if those things rest upon us that are not right in his sight, we shall be judged according to the record. The Lord will not overlook sin and fix up our cases at that time. The time for us to have our cases made ready is now, while the blood of Jesus Christ avails. GCB May 20, 1913, page 49.8

The apostle says: “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” Now, in order that we may know the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, we must count everything in this world loss. And it is a great exchange, a wonderful exchange to make. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.1

We must lay everything down in order to win Christ. We cannot win Christ if we do not. I read again what the Master says: “No man can serve two masters.” Why?—“For either he will love the one and hate the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other.” Now if we hold to Christ, we are bound to despise the things of this world. We shall not desire to speculate and to make money when souls are perishing at the rate of one hundred thousand each day. And yet sometimes we have a bank account and a large farm or ranch, and are receiving hundreds and thousands of dollars a year income beyond what we need for our own family requirements. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.2

What did the apostle want to find in Christ?—“That I may know him.” This word “know” means much more than a theoretical knowledge. It is a positive and absolute knowledge, an experience with the Lord, not simply knowing what is said about him. There is a great difference between preaching Christ and preaching about Christ. When we preach Jesus Christ it must come from the knowledge that is in us. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” When you and I are as we should be,—made to know the fellowship of his sufferings,—then we shall find ourselves cut loose from the world. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.3

“Not as though I had already attained,” he says, “either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” That word “apprehend” means “to receive thoroughly.” This is the meaning of the original word. “That I may receive thoroughly that which I have also thoroughly received of Christ Jesus.” The Lord receives us thoroughly when we come to him, even with all our sins. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.4

The apostle goes on further: “I count not myself to have received thoroughly; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” I want to read a little further: “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.” He regards a certain condition as being perfect. I understand from the Word of God that there is a present perfection, and a perfection by and by; and that is what Christ meant when he said, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” He is perfect in all his operations, and we should be perfect in all our operations. But you may say that this is not possible. It is possible. The apostle said: “As many as be perfect,” let them “be thus minded.” To be perfect means to give up everything for the Lord. Do you say you will have to starve? God does not let his honest, faithful children starve. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.5

The apostle says in Colossians, the first chapter: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins; who is the image of the invisible God.” I wish that word “image” could be understand more literally than the English presents it. When we find its meaning in the language that underlies the English, we find it is this, “Who is the pressed-forth one;” that is, pressed forth as features are pressed in wax. Then to be in the image of Jesus Christ is to be pressed forth, and his features are to be our features, as if they were pressed in wax. That is the way we are to be. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.6

So we find that we shall be able to comprehend “what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Now the fulness of God is his completeness. Brethren, the nearer we come to the Lords return to the earth, the greater is the necessity for our being in this condition. God calls for holy living. He expects us to be filled with all the fullness of God. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.7

In 2 Corinthians 4:6 we find this expression: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts.” The same God that created the world, and said, “Let there be light,” hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But how are we to enter into this experience? Read in the third chapter, eighteenth verse: “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” This is what the apostle meant when he said, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.8

It is time for us to awake from the dead, to awake from our sleep; for the Lord’s coming is nearer than when we first believed. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.9

I once saw a large, beautiful picture. A fine-looking man stood in the foreground, with a large bundle of crosses. On his right were people in a dense wood. They were looking at him. One man in the picture was reaching out his hand to take a cross, but a woman standing behind him would not let him take it. Another had just taken a cross, and carried it about half way up the hill, where, on a big rock, he was sawing it in two. Another came up with a cross, his body bent, but his face lighted up with the glory of God. Brethren and sisters, what you and I need is to take the cross and carry it that we may know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. The apostle tells what he was going to do with that fellowship; he says that he was called to “preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery.” GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.10

Brethren, in our neighborhoods are we so living that men shall see what is the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings? He says. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him.” Thank God. As I have studied his life, as I have seen his suffering in the midst of his enemies, as I have followed him in his wanderings for the three years and a half he was in the world, I have said, “O my Lord, give me that spirit; fill me with the fullness of God; let me stand where I can know Christ in his fullness, that I may be made conformable unto his death, so that when he appears he may recognize me as one that belongs to him. May God grant that we may “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.11

J. N. Loughborough: I should like to say a few words. Did you know that today is the birthday of the advent doctrine? I thought of it when I first awoke—the nineteenth of May. Did you ever hear of anything that took place on the nineteenth of May? GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.12

Voices: The darkening of the sun. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.13

J. N. Loughborough: Did you know that it occurred right on this ground? New England then took in all these colonies. It extended from Maine to the Carolinas. That dark day was seen here. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.14

Now I thought these brethren from abroad would be glad to know that they had been on the spot where this took place. My grandfather, who lived in Trenton, N. J., described that night. He said some people were made sick. The whale-oil lamps looked like blue globes. Two feet from one you could not see anything. I thought you would not think of this fulfillment of prophecy, but it fits on to this sermon. “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” It is now 133 years nearer than on that dark day. GCB May 20, 1913, page 50.15