Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 24 (1909)

Ms 126, 1909

Sermon/Thoughts from Isaiah

Three Rivers, Michigan

July 25, 1909

Previously unpublished.

Isaiah 52:1-8. Well, that is just where the Lord wants us to be, seeing eye to eye. He wants that every soul shall come into harmony. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 1

Verses 9, 10. Now this is prophecy; we may look for it, and we should be joyful that the Lord will make the impression on the human minds and human hearts, so that His people in these last days shall fulfill this prophecy. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 2

Verses 11, 12. Praise His holy name that He gives us such comforting promises. Thank the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, praise His holy name, for the encouragement that He gives to His people that will press in the pathway of truth and righteousness. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 3

Verses 13-15. “Many nations.” Now, remember that. This requires missionary work. This requires that not any pennies shall needlessly be expended. Why? Because the Lord has a place for all your means, that souls may be converted, as is here represented. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 4

Verse 14. “Visage” Whose visage? The Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 15. “Many nations.” Just consider that. Why, there are right among us cities that need labor, earnest labor, and if they had it, they would come to the knowledge of the truth. Verse 15. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 5

Isaiah 53:1, 2. Well, why was that? Well, everybody that thought they had a message to bear did not exalt themselves, they let God exalt them. Verse 3. Now that is the picture that is represented of Jesus Christ. There were some that esteemed Him. There were those that were lame and sick and suffering, and they beheld Him wherever they could get a chance to do it. They followed the Saviour, and they heard His teachings, as He would be walking, and teaching as He walked, until there was as many as four or five of more thousand that were His hearers. That was the way of the Lord that He is presenting before us. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 6

Verse 4. I wonder if that is the opinion that we shall give to other people as we do a similar work. But there has been such work done in many places so that they understand the value of the truths which they represent in the world. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 7

Verse 5. For the transgression of the very ones that despised and rejected Him. Verses 5, 6. That is too true. “And the Lord hath laid on him ... mouth.”—verse 7. None of His followers understood the intensity of the subject that He was dealing with, to save the souls of mankind. (Finish verse.) 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 8

Verse 8. “Generation?” Every one of us are to respond, “We will declare it. We will do the work. We will advocate that Christ left the royal courts of heaven, that Christ came to our earth in humanity so that humanity might embrace humanity, and that divinity might lay hold of divinity, and therefore here was what Christ did when He came to our world, and He was so little esteemed.” 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 9

Verse 8. “His generation.” I wonder how many, if I should ask them today, were declaring His generation—if I should ask them to stand upon their feet, who were declaring His generation. Now this is addressed to every one of us. We have got a solemn responsibility resting upon us, because the Lord God of heaven so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 10

Verse 8. His generation. Every one of us might answer, We will declare His generation, we will declare His work, we will tell what God has done in order to save us so that Christ shall not have died for us in vain. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 11

Verse 8. Finished. Now consider that for the transgression of my people was He stricken. Verses 9, 10. Thank God for this. Verses 10-12. Now here is the wonderful, wonderful work of God. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 12

Isaiah 54:1, 2. What does that mean? You are not to hover around a little church or a larger church. Every soul is bound to become a missionary for those that are around them, and then they will be educated in doing a similar work, to do a larger work, and when the call is made for the missionaries to go forth into foreign countries, we can respond to it. What we want is that every church should be in a position where they will be laborers together—remember the together, don’t separate from God—laborers together with God. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 13

Verses 4-10. Now as you seek for mercy, it is in doing the very work that He has laid out for you to do in this world. It is not for you to do nothing, and yet the blessing of God rest upon you, but it is to take right hold of the Word of God and encouragement that He has given, and try to wrench souls here from Satan’s grasp. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 14

Verse 11. Just as soon as they meet the conditions that God has given them. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 15

Verse 12. This is a representation of the spiritual work that will go forward in our world. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 16

Verses 13-17; Isaiah 55:1. You see there are conditions. You are to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Put away everything like foolishness that will distract your attention so that your grasp may be on the world. Teach your children the way of the Lord. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 17

Verses 1, 2. You need not look after the indulgences that the world gives. God calls that we shall go a work for Him, that the impression of the Spirit of God may be made upon all with whom we associate. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 18

Verses 3-5. It is not to sit down in your churches, and hear the minister teaching Sabbath after Sabbath, and working all the time, and you doing nothing. Every one of you are to be ministers of righteousness. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 19

Verse 5. Now you see what God proposes to do. Verse 6. What more can you ask for, if you will comply with the conditions? 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 20

Verses 8-13. Now here are other chapters that I will not attempt to bring out now. I want to come right to the fifty-eighth chapter. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 21

Isaiah 58:1, 2. “Daily.” They make a profession, not in works, but in profession. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 22

Verses 2, 3. Now bear in mind you are doing no unselfish work. You are exacting labor that is done in the churches that should be missionary work. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 23

Verses 4-11. Suppose the churches were in this condition, O suppose it, suppose it. I have thought of it again and again. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 24

Verse 8. “Spring forth speedily.” God cares for the workers. They sometimes work too hard, and are placed in hard places, because the rest of you do not do your duty. But when you come right up in the last stage of this earth’s history, as we are in now, and do your work for God, you are laying up for yourself a crown in the heavenly courts. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 25

Verse 8. “Righteousness goes before, and the health springs forth speedily.” Verse 9. “Answer.” There is no silence then. Verse 9. There is lots of it that is done, and it discourages the workers. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 26

Verses 10-14. Now we can see there is something for us to do. Every intelligent human being, God has created you. And He has given you all this encouragement that I have been reading to you. Now if you will follow on to know the Lord, ye shall know His going forth is prepared as the morning. We have so few conversions from the world because we do not follow out the directions of God. We want now to come to time. It is too late now in this period of this earth’s history, it is too late now for us to study how we shall get the most money, and what business we shall be in, that we shall not have any reproach from the world. It is to follow the Bible. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 27

And when I have been talking to our schools, that we must have them in various places, and then some one will bring out the idea in a paper or some place, then when they get through with their education in a school, they can attach themselves to the world to get the higher education. Now that is just the policy, to get the higher education. Where, I ask you, is a higher education than what I have been reading to you? It is a reproach to the Word of the living God to say that thing, and yet they send it to me in letters over and over again. Here we can have our large schools, and then those that are going to stand in sanitariums and different places, why we are going to have sanitariums right where our schools are. We are going to have educational means to bring every school to understand what they need for their bodies, and how to live, and how to eat, and how to exercise, not to sit down pouring over books. That won’t answer. No. Every muscle must be put into action. That is the light that God gave me when He sent us out to Europe and Australia. Here we had to bring it in, especially in Australia. There was scarcely anything there, but we began to work and dig. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 28

Wherever we have a school, there is to be the using of the muscles, just as much as to use your brain. We have buried some of our best students before their education was completed. God does not want us to lose our senses, but to reason from cause to effect. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 29

There is a world to save, and we want that every one of us shall be missionaries, every one that can go out into our cities. There is work that we can give you to do. We are getting publications all the time. I am writing while many of you are sleeping. I am getting off the light that God has given me, putting it into books, and telling and giving advise and counsel, and I want that every soul that is here should take knowledge that there is a living God, and that He expects you to be sensible men and women. He expects you not to overdo in your housework, but make it so simple that you can carry it on, and your children can carry it on with you, and then that they can go to the school, and you can do your work, and all blend together, and they are kept out of the outside society, out of the foolishness and all the nothingness, and keep before them that there is a heaven to win and a hell to shun. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 30

Now here are the prayers that we make in our houses and in our schools. There are praying seasons, and then there are meetings where they bear their testimonies, the children and the older ones altogether, and they learn splendidly how to be Christians. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 31

I cannot talk with you any longer now, but I just give you that hint, that there is something to do besides sending your children away from you. You can establish schools where you are, and if you are a Christian you can work in these schools and obtain the confidence of the scholars and of the teachers. We want the converting power of God on the right hand and we want it on the left hand, and we want to see something doing in every place to prepare for the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 32

Do you know that when you follow God’s plan He lets His blessing rest upon those that do it? We want every one to come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty powers of darkness. We want His light to shine upon us, and He will let it shine if we will let it. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 33

Pray, and then believe that God answers your prayer, and the light of heaven will circulate in your home. Fathers, have patience with your children, and mothers, never speak a word that will discourage them, but tell them you want them to be fitted, for what? The higher school above, where Christ leads them by the side of the living waters, and the Scriptures that you do not understand, He is opening the Word to you while He leads you to the tree of life, and leads you in the heavenly courts. We want you to teach your children that they are to be transferred to the higher school above, and keep that before them, to meet with God, to be taught of God, and Christ leads by the living waters, and there He opens the difficult portions that you could not understand of the Scriptures. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 34

Let us all labor for that life which measures with the life of God. That is what we want, a heaven to win, and we shall meet together there in the heavenly courts. God grant that this little talk that I have had with you shall not fall upon barren ground. God grant that we may come up to the help of the Lord. Be kind, and speak together kindly. Remember that we are each bought with a price, even the precious blood of the Son of God. The Son of the living God was given for you. Shall He have died for you and me in vain? God forbid it. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 35

Teach it to your children that they shall become understanding in the religion of Jesus Christ in their youth. The Lord will help you, and angels will be round about you to impress the light that you shall give to your children in meekness and in prayer, and by faith in God, you will see His salvation. 24LtMs, Ms 126, 1909, par. 36