A Solemn Appeal

Chapter 3—Obedience to the Law of God

Mercy and truth are promised to the humble and penitent, and judgments are prepared for the sinful and rebellious. “Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne.” Psalm 89:14. A wicked and adulterous people will not escape the wrath of God, the punishment they have justly earned. Man has fallen, and his is a work of a lifetime, be it longer or shorter, to recover from his fall, and regain, through Christ, the image of the divine, which he has lost by sin and continued transgression. God requires a thorough transformation of soul, body, and spirit, in order to regain the estate lost through Adam. The Lord mercifully sends rays of light to show man his true condition. If he will not walk in the light, he manifests a pleasure in darkness. He will not come to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. SA 140.1

The nominal churches of this day are filled with fornication and adultery, the result of base, lustful passion, but these things, to a great extent, are kept covered. Ministers, in high places, are guilty, yet a cloak of godliness covers their dark deeds, and they pass on from year to year in their course of hypocrisy. Their sins have reached unto Heaven. SA 140.2

Fornication and adultery are estimated by many professing Christians as sins which God winketh at. These sins are practiced to a great extent. They do not acknowledge the claims of God's law upon them. They have broken the commandments of the great Jehovah, and are zealously teaching their hearers to do the same, declaring that the law of God is abolished, and consequently has no claims upon them. In accordance with this free state of things, sin does not appear so exceedingly sinful; for by the law is the knowledge of sin, We may expect to find men among those who thus teach, who will deceive, and lie, and give loose rein to lustful passions. But men and women who acknowledge the ten commandments binding, should carry out in their lives, the principles of all ten of the precepts given in awful grandeur from Sinai. SA 141.1

The Lord made this special covenant with ancient Israel: “Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Exodus 19:5, 6. He addresses his commandment-keeping people in these last days, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” 1 Peter 2:9, 11. SA 141.2

But all who profess to keep the commandments of God are not possessing their bodies in sanctification and honor. They can have a powerful influence if they will be sanctified by the truths they profess. They profess to be standing upon the elevated platform of eternal truth, keeping all of God's commandments; therefore, if they indulge in sin, if they commit fornication and adultery, their crime is of tenfold greater magnitude than those I have referred to who do not acknowledge the law of God binding upon them. In a peculiar sense do those who profess to keep God's law dishonor him and reproach the truth by transgressing that law. SA 142.1

This very sin, fornication, prevailed among ancient Israel, which brought the signal manifestation of God's displeasure. The judgments of God followed close upon their heinous sin. Thousands of them fell, and their polluted bodies were left in the wilderness. “But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” 1 Corinthians 10:5-12. SA 142.2

God's people, above all people in the world, should be patterns of piety, holy in heart and in conversation. The people whom God has chosen as his peculiar treasure, he requires to be elevated, refined, sanctified—partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. If such indulge in sin and iniquity who make so high a profession, their guilt is very great, because they have great light, and have by their profession taken their position as God's special, chosen people, having the law of God written in their hearts. They signify their loyalty to the God of Heaven by yielding obedience to the laws of his government. They are God's representatives upon the earth. Any sin or transgression in them separates them from God, and, in a special manner, dishonors his name by giving the enemies of God's holy law occasion to reproach his cause and his people, whom he has called “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people,” that they should show forth the praises of Him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. SA 143.1

The people who are at war with the law of the great Jehovah, who consider it a special virtue to talk, and write, and act, the most bitter and hateful things, to show their contempt of that law, may make high and exalted profession of love to God, and apparently have much religious zeal, as did the Jewish chief priests and elders; yet in the day of God, “Found wanting” will be said to them by the Majesty of Heaven. By the law is the knowledge of sin. The mirror which discovers to them the defects in their character, they are infuriated against, because it points out their sins. Ministers who have rejected the light are fired with madness against God's holy law, as the Jewish priests were against the Son of God. They are in a terrible deception, deceiving souls, and being deceived themselves. They will not come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved. Such will not be taught. But the people who profess to keep the law of God, he corrects, he reproves. He points out their sins, and lays open their iniquity; because he wishes to separate all sin and wickedness from them, that they may perfect holiness in his fear, and be prepared to die in the Lord, or to be translated to Heaven. God will rebuke, reprove, and correct them, that they may be refined, sanctified, elevated, and finally exalted to his throne. SA 144.1

The professed people of God are not all holy. Some are corrupt. God is seeking to elevate them; but these refuse to come up upon a high plane of action. The animal passions bear sway, and the moral and intellectual are overborne, and made servants to the animal. Those who do not control their passions cannot appreciate the atonement, or place a right value upon the worth of the soul. Salvation to them is not experienced nor understood. The gratification of their animal passions is to them the highest ambition of their lives. But nothing but purity and holiness will God accept. One spot, one wrinkle, one defect in the character, will debar them from Heaven, with all its glories and treasures, forever. SA 145.1

Ample provisions have been made for all who sincerely, earnestly, and thoughtfully, set about the work of perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Power and strength, grace and glory, have been provided through Christ, to be brought by ministering angels to the heirs of salvation. None are so low, and corrupt, and vile, but that they can find in Jesus, who died for them, strength, purity, and righteousness, if they will put away their sins, stop their course of iniquity, and turn with full purpose of heart to the living God. He is waiting to strip them of their garments, stained and polluted by sin, and to put upon them the pure robes of righteousness, and bid them live and not die. In him they may flourish. Their branches will not wither nor be fruitless. If they abide in him, they can draw sap and nourishment from him, be imbued with his Spirit, walk even as he walked, overcome as he overcame, and be exalted to his own right hand. SA 145.2

“Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it, in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Romans 6:12, 13. Professed Christians, if there is no further light given you than that contained in this text, you will be without excuse if you suffer yourselves to be controlled by base passions. The word of God is sufficient to enlighten the most beclouded mind. And it can be understood by those who have any wish to understand it. But notwithstanding all this, some of those who profess to make the word of God their study, are found living in direct opposition to its plainest teachings. But in order to leave men and women without excuse, God has given plain and pointed testimonies, bringing them to the word they have neglected to follow. Yet all the light is turned from by those who serve their own lusts, and they will not cease their course of sin, but continue to take pleasure in unrighteousness, in the face of the threatenings and vengeance of God against those who do such things. SA 146.1

E. G. W.