General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

SERMON

W. W. PRESCOTT

April 5, 7 P. M.

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Behold your “God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 128.6

This is the advent message, both the old and the new. GCB April 8, 1901, page 128.7

It is the only message that God has ever sent to this world. If we notice these scriptures with care, we shall see how plain it is that he himself in his own word has emphasized the fact that the advent message, the forgiveness of sin through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness of Christ by faith unto all and upon all them that believe, is, and always has been, the message to give to all the world. I want especially to emphasize this simple truth, and let it appear from God’s word that this is so. GCB April 8, 1901, page 128.8

The seventeenth verse of the first chapter of Matthew does not seem like a very prominent scripture, and yet it has been to me a key to open up this very question. “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 128.9

You see that in the first verse he begins with the time of Abraham, and tells us that this book is “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” After giving the genealogy from Abraham down to Christ, he sums it all up by pointing out to us four mountain tops in this line; namely, Abraham, David, the carrying away into Babylon, and the first advent of Christ. If we look at the history covered by that period with reference to this simple statement, we shall see, I think, how clear it is that God is pointing out the landmarks along the way of the history, to be sure that we do not lose the message of justification by faith;—Christ in you the hope of glory;—no longer I that live, but, “Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” That is the one message. GCB April 8, 1901, page 128.10

The reading of some simple scriptures will show at once that this was the one truth standing out so prominently in the lives of Abraham and David. Romans 4:1.8. “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 128.11

This scripture brings Abraham and David right together in a common experience of righteousness by faith. But what is the difference in the life history of these two men, that makes it so eminently fitting that they should be referred to in this way, and classed together? Abraham went forth into a new land, called of God. “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” So he “went forth ...into the land of Canaan,” and he pitched his tent in which his family should dwell, and built an altar by the side of his tent, where he should carry on the worship of God; and from place to place as he traveled, he pitched his tent, and built the altar. There you have the first and the best type of God’s kingdom,—the family as the center, the head of the family as the priest of the household, and the altar right beside the tent,—teaching us that the church, the household of God, is simply the gathering together of individual families, and teaching us that all the churches gathered together can simply make the one family in heaven and earth. GCB April 8, 1901, page 128.12

But afterward the people wanted a king, though God told them it was not best. But they insisted they must have a king, and so he gave them their king. He guided them still as best he could regarding the king they should have, and in David he found a man after his own heart, who should accomplish all his will, thus setting forth the kingdom of God, revealing in his life those words which he spake at the close of his life. “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.” That is the king’s message of the kingdom. GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.1

So these two men stand out—the one the head of the family, with the tent and the altar, and the king setting forth the truth of the kingdom. In the Psalm quoted in the epistle to the Hebrews. “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.2

So the two men, in their different ways, are setting forth to us in their life experience this grand truth, this same message, righteousness by faith, Christ in you the hope of glory. GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.3

What is the next mountain-top in the history?—Carrying away into Babylon. And why?—Because, as Daniel says, “We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: neither have we harkened unto thy servants the prophets.” That was the cause, and it was set forth before them more than a whole century before they were carried into captivity. God began to set before them their own condition, tell them what it had led to, and at the same time held out a message of hope if they would accept it. Just sketch a moment in the prophets, and see what a meaning there is in this. The prophecy of Isaiah 1 was given nearly a century and a half before Jerusalem was taken and destroyed. What message did God send to them then? Let us read, beginning with the fourth verse. [The speaker here read from the fourth to the twenty-sixth verses of Isaiah 1.] GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.4

Warning, invitation, encouragement, promise! and all because God saw the course that his people were then entering upon, and wanted to prevent it. So through Isaiah the prophet he sent forth this message, and made it clear through him to us that he would really be their deliverance, and that by a coming One dwelling in the flesh. So the prophet said, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.5

This same Isaiah set forth the hope to which they were to look, the Root that was to come forth, the Branch that was to grow up, and that it would be an ensign to which the Gentiles would seek, and that his rest would be glorious; then he breaks forth into that song that describes the result of accepting that simple message. “In that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name be exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for he hat done excellent things; this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy one of Israel in the midst of thee.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.6

That was the theme there, and he almost closes his prophecy by bringing this message: “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” The people had all this message long before they went down into Babylon, but they did not heed it, so God could not lead them. Then Jeremiah came with his prophecies, and taught them the same, and especially called their attention to one thing that was leading them away, and would bring all this ruin upon them. All this he set before their eyes so clearly that he told who the king was, and just what he would do: “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.7

They went down into Babylon after that, and yet the Lord did not forsake them. Ezekiel then follows, and keeps up the prophecy. Even after they went into Babylon, he gave a message, a portion of which is found in his thirty-seventh chapter. [Please read from your Bibles verses 1-10.] GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.8

A valley of dry bones, very dry, becomes an exceedingly great army. “Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.9

But some one has been thinking all along, Ah, but that thirty-seventh of Ezekiel tells about the resurrection. So it does. Now notice. There will be two resurrections; and it does not make any difference whether a man is righteous or unrighteous, he will be raised just the same. It is not, then, simply to be raised; all will be raised; the point is in which resurrection,—the first or the second. GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.10

On those who are raised in the first resurrection the second death has no power; but only those will be raised in the first resurrection who know him and the power of his resurrection now. And this scripture is just as much a present advent message as it ever will be. GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.11

Mark another thing. What is the difficulty in the time of the resurrection with the wicked?—They are late in coming up,—too late, just one day late. Just one day late in coming up; because with the Lord a thousand years is as one day. Now what is the present teaching?—Just this: Somebody will be just one day late in receiving this message, and that will make him one day late in the resurrection. These all will be raised by the same power; but they will be raised one day late—a thousand years. And how late will they be? Eternally too late. GCB April 8, 1901, page 129.12

God is now beginning to fulfill the prophecy of this thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel. I have heard a noise and a shaking, and some have shaken because they did not understand the noise, and thought it meant that the bones were to be broken all to pieces; others have heard the sound, and welcomed it, are stepping right along, and coming together, bone to his bone. GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.1

Now look out, in this very time, in this very Conference, do not be one day behind that prophecy: for one day behind that prophecy now may mean one day behind it in the resurrection; and that means a thousand years; and that means the second resurrection; that means eternally too late. Do not be one day late. GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.2

So the prophecies go on. And I want to call attention now to the prophecy of Habakkuk, the first chapter. This prophecy of Habakkuk was given about 626, which was about twenty years before the Jews went down into Babylon. Mark this time; it is important in its relation to this whole teaching, say about twenty years before they went down into Babylon, The cloud now has become large and dark, almost overspreading the sky, and the burden is beginning to rest more and more heavily upon God’s servants, the prophets, as they see what is coming, and they begin to bear their message with greater and greater distinctness, definiteness, and power; and Habakkuk joins in with the strain of the prophets, and says: “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous: therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.3

This is his inquiry, and the Lord answered him thus: “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.4

Through Isaiah the prophet, as recorded in the twenty-ninth chapter, he had simply said, “I will work a work after this same sort;” but he did not say it will be in “your days,” for that was more than a century before they went down into Babylon. But now within twenty years, less than a generation of the time of their going down, Habakkuk the prophet is instructed by the Lord to say: “Behold, ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horseman shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princess shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every stronghold; for they shall heap dust, and take it. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.5

Then Habakkuk replies: “Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment: and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eye than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag; therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations? GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.6

Habakkuk continues and says: “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said. Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.7

Now here is the message; here is the vision: “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.8

Now what was he told to do?—He was told to write this vision, to make it plain upon tables, that he who runs may read; and the vision was just this one thing, The just shall live by faith. This is the key to all the visions; this is the key to all the prophets; this is the summing up in one sentence of the whole of the prophecy of Daniel. GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.9

Now in following out that suggestion as we have thought, we have put visions upon tables and charts, to make them plain to the people. What have you made plain to the people, so that if one is just running by, he can see it as he passes, and get the message? Have you made the chart so clear and plain that, in this age of haste and hurry, when you perhaps will get a man to hear you only once, and you must give him then the message of salvation or lose him, have you written the chart so plainly that it has stood right out; and he who passed by, looked in, listened a few moments, heard perhaps one talk, got the message, “The just shall live by faith”? Have the charts simply had on them pictures of beasts, pictures of images, pictures of symbols, some figures, some measuring lines, some comparisons; so that those who came in and looked, said, “What a queer thing that is! Can’t be much interest in that.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.10

What is the message in every symbol in the book of Daniel, in every vision, the life of every data?—Just this one message: Righteousness by faith; Christ dwelling in you. Have you been studying the book of Daniel? Have you been preaching the book of Daniel? Have you got the vision so clear and plain that the common man and the uncommon man, the slow man and the hasty man all get the same message,—that same advent message that fills the book of Daniel, and fills the book of Revelation,—“the just shall live by faith”? GCB April 8, 1901, page 130.11

Why do we want it?—For the very same reason that they wanted it—to get us out of Babylon. They had the message before they went to Babylon; so have we. They were God’s people; so are we. They did not hear the message, they would not listen to the prophet; neither have we. They went on their way; so have we. They went just where God saw they would go; so have we. But God did not leave them then. His prophets continued to prophesy; so they do now. The same message; so it is. What for?—To get them out of Babylon. The message would have saved them from Babylon. The message had power enough in it to bring them out of Babylon after they got in. GCB April 8, 1901, page 131.1

So it is to-day, thank the Lord. That is why we want this message. Now just think a moment. In the book of Daniel, ancient Babylon is set forth while God’s people are down there. Daniel, in Babylon, yet not in Babylon at all. In Babylon, but not of Babylon; in confusion, but not confused; but with his people down there in ancient Babylon; then God opened up to the mind of that faithful prophet the message that would get them out; but he did not stop there. Then he showed to him, and through him he showed to us, that away down, centuries from that time, his people would be still in Babylon, and would have to be brought out, and that it was the same message that would bring them out—“the just shall live by faith.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 131.2

And so, in the prophecies of Daniel, ancient Babylon is set forth before us, that heathen nation who said through their teachers. There is no man on earth can reveal this thing to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh; and Daniel came right forward, believing that God’s dwelling is with flesh, and he said, Give me time, and I will show the dream and the interpretation; and he got his companions together, and they desired mercies of the God of heaven; and then was the secret revealed to Daniel in a night vision. And he told the king his dream and the interpretation, and if you will read it with eyes anointed, you will see in it this message of righteousness by faith. GCB April 8, 1901, page 131.3

Then God went on with Daniel, and gave him visions to show him that that experience of ancient Babylon, who did not believe that the gods dwelt with flesh, and had cut themselves off to be independent, to do their own thinking, to do their own planning, to do their own working—God showed to Daniel that that history was a prophecy, and gave him visions by which he could take that history, and set it right down here, and reveal modern Babylon with his people still in Babylon, and give them the message that would bring them out of Babylon. From the time that God’s people went down into Babylon, there has been, we may perhaps say, only one time when his people go out of Babylon, and when was that? GCB April 8, 1901, page 131.4

If at all, it was when that other cycle of fourteen generations was completed, and Jesus Christ was set forth, and it was revealed before the heavenly universe and all the world, that the dwelling of God is with flesh, and that that is what gets a people out of Babylon. But that light was quenched, and modern Babylon arose, and the people apostatized and rebelled, and began to travel right over the same road; with this difference, that as the light had been greater in the revelation, and as the light they had was greater, now the darkness is deeper, and the dark days, and the papacy with its rule and its injustice,—the very type of the kingdom of darkness,—was upon the world; and it seemed as if the very light of life was to be quenched, when lo! there was a rift, and the light of the Reformation of the sixteenth century broke in to sound that same old keynote; and God gave to Luther that message. As he was in his cell, reading over the epistle to the Romans, he came to this word; “The just shall live by faith.” He stopped, and from that time that simple text, says the historian, became the inspiration and the power of the Reformation. GCB April 8, 1901, page 131.5

And if they had clung to that one simple truth, the Reformation would have gone on to completion; the advent message would have been closed up, and God’s kingdom would be in the earth now. But they went a little way, and they met some things that they did not understand in that message, and they stopped. And Luther’s followers, instead of facing toward the light as he had done, turned around to see what Luther taught, and stopped, and became Lutherans; and there they are. The reform stopped. Why?—Because instead of keeping their face toward the light, and walking in the light “as he is in the light,” they met some difficulties about the message, and they thought the safest way was to turn around and see what Luther taught, and go back to the fathers to get on a solid basis; and they went back there, and they are still back there on the solid basis. I suppose they will stay there until the Lord comes. GCB April 8, 1901, page 131.6

Calvin’s followers got part way; turned around to see what Calvin taught, and Calvinism was established, and there it is. And so everything became an ism, and everything stopped. Why?—Because they got to a certain point in their message of reform, and then they met some difficulties, the thing did not go just as they hoped; they thought there was confusion coming in; they thought the safest way was to turn around, and see what Luther and the others taught, and get back to his teaching, and get the right start again, and they died trying it. They stopped walking in the light. “Walk in the light as he is in the light.” “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” The way will open. GCB April 8, 1901, page 131.7

Now, where are we? Because those reformers stopped, turned around, and of course, went backward instead of forward, that reform, that whole movement has changed, and now to-day, we have to reform both the Beast and his Image. And what is the reform?—What is the message of reform?—There is only one message, and this is from Genesis to Revelation, “The just shall live by faith.” Sound it out! The call is to-day, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins hath reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Go ye forth out of Babylon, flee out of the midst of her! Which way? “I am the way.” By what teaching? “I am the truth.” By what power? I am “the life.” Sound it forth! I want to tell you that that is the message that will bring us out of Babylon, and help us to get everyone else who will hear it, out of Babylon; and that will prepare the way of the Lord even as of old, when God sent his message preparing the way for the coming of the Lord. Isaiah gives it, message of comfort, message of hope, preparation for the Lord’s coming. I will read Isaiah 40:1-9: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” GCB April 8, 1901, page 131.8

“Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.” John the Baptist gets the message of preparation for the Lord’s coming from that very prophecy. We have the message of John the Baptist still to give. “All flesh is grass;” “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” “Behold your God.” “The just shall live by faith.” GCB April 8, 1901, page 132.1