Sabbath Afternoon, April 27
Memory Text:
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” KJV — Psalm 119:11
“Had the Reformation, after attaining a degree of success, consented to temporize to secure favor with the world, it would have been untrue to God and to itself, and would thus have ensured its own destruction. The experience of these noble Reformers contains a lesson for all succeeding ages. Satan's manner of working against God and His word has not changed; he is still as much opposed to the Scriptures being made the guide of life as in the sixteenth century. In our time there is a wide departure from their doctrines and precepts, and there is need of a return to the great Protestant principle—the Bible, and the Bible only, as the rule of faith and duty. Satan is still working through every means which he can control to destroy religious liberty. The antichristian power which the protesters of Spires rejected is now with renewed vigor seeking to re-establish its lost supremacy. The same unswerving adherence to the word of God manifested at that crisis of the Reformation is the only hope of reform today.” GC 204.2
Sunday, April 28
God’s Word Alone
Read Psalm 119:103, 104; Psalm 119:147; and Psalm 119:162. What was David’s attitude towards God’s Word? How did this impact the Reformers, and does it influence our lives today?
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11. TMK 196.1
“To some the Word of God is uninteresting. The reason is, they have so long indulged in the bewitching stories to be found in the literature of the present day that they have no relish for the reading of God's Word or for religious exercises. This reading disqualifies the mind to receive sound Bible principles and to work out practical godliness.... TMK 196.2
“When reading the Bible with humble, teachable heart, we are holding intercourse with God Himself. The thoughts expressed, the precepts specified, the doctrines revealed, are a voice from the God of heaven. The Bible will bear to be studied, and the mind, if not bewitched by Satan, will be attracted and charmed.... The light which beams through the Scriptures is light from the eternal throne flashed down to this earth.... TMK 196.3
“All who make the Word of God their guide in this life will act from principle. Those who are vacillating, vain, and extravagant in dress, who are gratifying the appetite and following the promptings of the natural heart, will, in obeying the teachings of God's Word, become balanced. They will devote themselves to duty with an energy that never falters, and they will rise from one degree of strength to another. Their characters will be beautiful and fragrant and devoid of selfishness. They will make their way and be acceptable anywhere among those who love truth and righteousness. TMK 196.4
“The psalmist prayed, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” The Lord heard him, for how full of assurance are the words, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalm 119:18, 103; 19:10.). And as the Lord heard and answered David, so He will hear and answer us, making our hearts full of gladness and rejoicing.” TMK 196.5
Monday, April 29
Passing on God’s Word
Read 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 and 2 Corinthians 2:14. What do these passages tell us about the confidence of Paul had, despite the challenges he faced in proclaiming the truth of God’s Word?
“Thus the apostle magnified the grace and mercy of God, shown in the sacred trust committed to him as a minister of Christ. By God's abundant mercy he and his brethren had been sustained in difficulty, affliction, and danger. They had not modeled their faith and teaching to suit the desires of their hearers, nor kept back truths essential to salvation in order to make their teaching more attractive. They had presented the truth with simplicity and clearness, praying for the conviction and conversion of souls. And they had endeavored to bring their conduct into harmony with their teaching, that the truth presented might commend itself to every man's conscience. AA 330.1
“‘We have this treasure,’ the apostle continued, ‘in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.’ God could have proclaimed His truth through sinless angels, but this is not His plan. He chooses human beings, men compassed with infirmity, as instruments in the working out of His designs. The priceless treasure is placed in earthen vessels. Through men His blessings are to be conveyed to the world. Through them His glory is to shine forth into the darkness of sin. In loving ministry they are to meet the sinful and the needy, and lead them to the cross. And in all their work they are to ascribe glory, honor, and praise to Him who is above all and over all. AA 330.2
“Referring to his own experience, Paul showed that in choosing the service of Christ he had not been prompted by selfish motives, for his pathway had been beset by trial and temptation. “We are troubled on every side,” he wrote, ‘yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.’” AA 330.3
“These words of Paul do not denote a spiritual pride, but a deep knowledge of Christ. As one of God's messengers sent to confirm the truth of the word, he knew what was truth; and with the boldness of a sanctified conscience he gloried in that knowledge. He knew that he was called of God to preach the gospel with all the assurance which his confidence in the message gave him. He was called to be God's ambassador to the people, and he preached the gospel as one who was called. 7MR 360.2
“‘I thank my God always on your behalf,’ he wrote, ‘for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you; so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.’” 7MR 360.3
Tuesday, April 30
Enlightened by the Spirit
What principles can we take from the following texts regarding how we should interpret the Bible? John 14:25, 26; John 16:13-15; and 2 Peter 1:20, 21.
“While exalting the ‘sure word of prophecy’ as a safe guide in times of peril, the apostle solemnly warned the church against the torch of false prophecy, which would be uplifted by ‘false teachers,’ who would privily bring in ‘damnable heresies, even denying the Lord.’ These false teachers, arising in the church and accounted true by many of their brethren in the faith, the apostle compared to ‘wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.’ ‘The latter end is worse with them,’ he declared, ‘than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.’” AA 535.1
Affirmatively stated, all Scripture, not merely a part of It, is inspired. Negatively stated, none of It is privately interpreted, for the reason that It did not come of men but of God; that is, as the Spirit of God dictated to men the Scriptures, so the Spirit of God must interpret the Scriptures to men, that no man privately (without Inspiration) is capable of disclosing the sealed prophecies or interpreting any part of them or even capable of understanding their importance after they are interpreted except it be by the gift of the Spirit of Truth. "None of the wicked," therefore, "shall understand; but the wise shall understand." Dan. 12:10.
And It can be interpreted by men only as and when God's Spirit decrees. Accordingly, every jot and title of Scripture and Its interpretation is of Inspiration, and thus wholly profitable to guide the man of God doctrinally, to reprove and to correct him, and righteously to instruct him, unto perfection of faith and works.
that is, had the Scriptures come by the will of man, then they could be interpreted by the will of man without the aid of the Spirit. But the fact that "holy men of God" received the Scriptures from the Spirit of God, and as it is impossible for man of himself to know the mind of the Holy Spirit, he cannot interpret the Scriptures without the Spirit's aid--he must, therefore, be inspired as verily as the ones to whom the Scriptures were given at the first.
This is attested by the fact that today we have thousands of isms which are the result of thousands of interpretations of the Scriptures, which proves that men have independently of the Spirit interpreted the Scriptures, for the Spirit of Prophecy does not, and cannot, give to one person one interpretation of scripture, and give to another another interpretation of the same scripture...
Here we are told that prophecy, a vision, is the acid test by which to judge purported Bible Truth; that is, if the thing is not in prophecy, if there is no vision of it found in the writings of the prophets, then, there is no truth in it. Yes, the visions of the prophets are to be our visions if we must be preserved. Prophecy, though, he contends is of no more private interpretation than were Nebuchadnezzar’s and Pharaoh’s visions, that the wise men of any people are not able to interpret the concealed prophecies of God. Why?
Verse 21 – “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
This is exactly why prophecy cannot be privately interpreted, not without the Spirit Who dictated the prophecies to holy men of old. So, then, the prophecies are not interpreted by the will of men, but by the Spirit of Truth, “the Spirit of Prophecy,” the same Spirit that dictated the prophecies...
Wednesday, May 1
Christ Alone…Grace Alone
Read Ephesians 2:8, 9; Romans 3:23, 24; Romans 6:23; and Romans 5:8-10. What do these verses teach about the plan of salvation?
“The fall of man, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent. Redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam, but an eternal purpose, suffered to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this atom of a world, but for the good of all the worlds that God had created.... TMK 18.2
“When man sinned, all heaven was filled with sorrow.... Out of harmony with the nature of God, unyielding to the claims of His law, naught but destruction was before the human race. Since the divine law is as changeless as the character of God, there could be no hope for man unless some way could be devised whereby his transgression might be pardoned, his nature renewed, and his spirit restored to reflect the image of God. Divine love had conceived such a plan.... TMK 18.3
“In the work of creation Christ was with God. He was one with God, equal with Him.... He alone, the Creator of man, could be his Saviour. No angel of heaven could reveal the Father to the sinner, and win him back to allegiance to God. But Christ could manifest the Father's love, for God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Christ could be the “daysman” between a holy God and lost humanity, one who could “lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9:33).... He proposed to take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin—sin so offensive in the sight of God that it would necessitate separation from His Father. Christ proposed to reach to the depths of man's degradation and woe, and restore the repenting, believing soul to harmony with God. Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, offered Himself as a sacrifice and substitute for the fallen sons of Adam.26 TMK 18.4
“Through creation and redemption, through nature and through Christ, the glories of the divine character are revealed. By the marvelous display of His love in giving “his only begotten Son,” ... the character of God is revealed to the intelligences of the universe.”27 TMK 18.5
Thursday, May 2
Obedience: The Fruit of Faith
Read Romans 3: 27-31; Romans 6:15-18; and Romans 8:1, 2. What do these verses teach us about salvation through Christ’s righteousness alone?
“Adam failed to obey the commandments of God. Shall the sons and daughters of Adam continue in transgression, and also fail to obey? No one can enter into life who persists in disloyalty, since Christ was given to our world that he might save his people from their sins. When the young man came to Christ, saying, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” It was not possible for the young man, or for anyone, to keep the commandments of God except through the merit of Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of the blood of Christ there could be no remission of sin, no imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the believing sinner. Christ endured the penalty of sin in his own body on the cross, and fulfilled all righteousness. The merit of the righteousness of Christ is the only ground upon which the sinner may hope for a title to eternal life; for Christ hath given himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God, as a sweet-smelling savor. An infinite price was paid for man's redemption, not that he might be saved in his sins, not to make void the law of God. Paul says: “Do we then make void the law of God through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” For though “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight,” yet the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, is witnessed by the law and the prophets.” ST June 18, 1894, par. 6
Read 1 Peter 2:2, 2 Peter 3:18, Colossians 1:10, and Ephesians 4:18-24. What vital truths do these passages reveal about the Christian life?
“The Christian life is a battle and a march. But the victory to be gained is not won by human power. The field of conflict is the domain of the heart. The battle which we have to fight—the greatest battle that was ever fought by man—is the surrender of self to the will of God, the yielding of the heart to the sovereignty of love. The old nature, born of blood and of the will of the flesh, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The hereditary tendencies, the former habits, must be given up. MB 141.2
“He who determines to enter the spiritual kingdom will find that all the powers and passions of an unregenerate nature, backed by the forces of the kingdom of darkness, are arrayed against him. Selfishness and pride will make a stand against anything that would show them to be sinful. We cannot, of ourselves, conquer the evil desires and habits that strive for the mastery. We cannot overcome the mighty foe who holds us in his thrall. God alone can give us the victory. He desires us to have the mastery over ourselves, our own will and ways. But He cannot work in us without our consent and co-operation. The divine Spirit works through the faculties and powers given to man. Our energies are required to co-operate with God.” MB 141.3
Friday, May 3
Further Thought
“When Christ ascended to the Father, He did not leave His followers without help. The Holy Spirit, as His representative, and the heavenly angels, as ministering spirits, are sent forth to aid those who against great odds are fighting the good fight of faith. Ever remember that Jesus is your helper. No one understands as well as He your peculiarities of character. He is watching over you, and if you are willing to be guided by Him, He will throw around you influences for good that will enable you to accomplish all His will for you. MYP 17.1
“In this life we are preparing for the future life. Soon there is to be a grand review, in which every soul who is seeking to perfect a Christian character must bear the test of God's searching questions: Have you set an example that others were safe in following? Have you watched for souls as those that must give an account? The heavenly host are interested in the youth; and they are intensely desirous that you will bear the test, and that to you will be spoken the words of approval, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’” MYP 17.2