Latest / Sacred Texts Archive / 28 - The Desire of Ages - Ellen Gould

Transcript

28 - The Desire of Ages - Ellen Gould · Sacred Texts Archive

0:01
Levi Matthew. Of the Roman officials in Palestine, none were more hated than
0:06
the Publicans. The fact that the taxes were imposed by a foreign power was
0:11
a continual irritation to the Jews, being a reminder that their independence had departed,
0:17
and the tax gatherers were not merely the instruments of Roman oppression. They
0:21
were extortioners on their own account, enriching themselves at the expense of the people.
0:27
A Jew who accepted this office at the hands of the Romans was looked
0:30
upon as betraying the honor of his nation. He was despised as an apostate,
0:35
and was classed with the vilest of society. To this class belonged Levi
0:41
Matthew, who, after the four disciples at Gennesaret, was the next to
0:45
be called to Christ's service. The Pharisees had judged Matthew according to his employment,
0:51
but Jesus saw in this man a heart opened for the reception of truth.
0:55
Matthew had listened to the Saviour's teaching. As the convicting spirit of God
0:59
revealed his sinfulness. He longed to seek help from Christ, but he was
1:03
accustomed to the exclusiveness of the rabbis, and had no thought that this great
1:07
teacher would notice him. Setting at his toll booth. One day the publicans
1:12
saw Jesus approaching. Great was his astonishment to hear the words dressed to himself,
1:19
follow me. Matthew left, all rose up and followed him. There
1:23
was no hesitation, no questioning, no thought of the lucrative business to be
1:29
exchanged for poverty and hardship. It was enough for him that he was to
1:33
be with Jesus, that he might listen to his words and unite with him
1:37
in his work. So it was with the disciples previously called. When Jesus
1:42
bade Peter and his companions follow him, immediately they left their boats and nets.
1:47
Some of these disciples had friends depended on them for support, But when
1:51
they received the Saviour's invitation, they did not hesitate and inquire how shall I
1:56
live and sustain my family? They were obedient to the and when afterwards Jesus
2:01
asked them, when I sent you without purse and script and shoes, lack
2:06
you anything, they could answer nothing. Luke twenty two thirty five. To
2:12
Matthew in his wealth, and to Andrew and Peter in their poverty, the
2:15
same test was brought, the same consecration was made by each. At the
2:21
moment of success, when the nets were filled with fish and the impulses of
2:23
the Old life were strongest, Jesus asked the disciples at the sea to leave
2:29
all for the work of the Gospel. So every soul is tested as to
2:32
whether the desire for temporal good or for fellowship with Christ is strongest. Principle
2:38
is always exacting. No man can succeed in the service of God unless his
2:44
whole heart is in the work, and he counts all things but loss for
2:47
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. No man who makes any reserve can
2:53
be the disciple of Christ, much less can he be as collaborator. When
2:57
men appreciate the great salvation, the self sacrifice seen in Christ's life will be
3:02
seen in theirs. Wherever he leads away, they will rejoice to follow.
3:07
The calling of Matthew to be one of Christ's disciples excited great indignation. For
3:13
a religious teacher. To choose a publican as one of his immediate attendants was
3:16
an offense against the religious, social, and national customs. By appealing to
3:22
the prejudices of the people, the Pharisees hope to turn the current to popular
3:27
feeling against Jesus. Among the publicans, a widespread interest was created. Their
3:34
hearts were drawn towards the divine teacher. In the joy of his new discipleship,
3:38
Matthew longed to bring his former associates to Jesus. Accordingly, he made
3:43
a feast at his own house and called together his relatives and friends. Not
3:46
only were publicans included, but many others who were of doubtful reputation and were
3:52
proscribed by their more scrupulous neighbors. The entertainment was given in honor of Jesus,
3:58
and he did not hesitate to exc up the courtesy. He well knew
4:01
that this would give offense to the Pharisaic party and would also compromise him in
4:05
the eyes of the people. But no question of policy could influence his movements.
4:11
With him, external distinction weighed nothing. That which appealed to his heart
4:15
was a soul thirsting for the water of life. Jesus set as an honored
4:20
guest at the table of the publicans by his sympathy and social kindness, showing
4:26
that he recognized the dignity of humanity and men longed to become worthy of his
4:30
confidence upon their thirsty hearts. His words fell with blessed life giving power.
4:38
New impulses were awakened, and the possibility of a new life open to these
4:43
outcasts of society. At such gatherings as this, not a few were impressed
4:47
by the Saviour's teachings, who did not acknowledge him until after his ascension,
4:51
when the Holy Spirit was poured out and three thousand were converted in a day.
4:57
There were among them many who first heard the truth that the the table
5:00
of the publicans, and some of these became messengers of the gospel to Matthew
5:04
himself. The example of Jesus the feast was a constant lesson. The despised
5:10
Publican became one of the most devoted evangelists in his own ministry, following closely
5:15
in his master's steps. When the rabbis learned of the presence of Jesus at
5:19
Matthew's feast, they seized the opportunity of accusing him, but they chose to
5:25
work through the disciples. By arousing their prejudices, they hoped to alienate them
5:30
from their master. It was their policy to accuse Christ to the disciples,
5:34
and the disciples to Christ, aiming their arrows where they would be most likely
5:40
to wound. This is the way in which Satan has worked ever since the
5:43
disaffection in heaven, and all who try to cause discord and alienation are actuated
5:48
by his spirit. Why edith your master with the publicans and sinners? Questioned
5:54
the envious rabbis. Jesus did not wait for his disciples to answer the charge,
5:59
but himself replied, they that be whole need not a physician, but
6:02
they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth I will
6:09
have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous,
6:13
but sinners to repentance. The Pharisees claimed to be spiritually whole and therefore
6:17
in no need of a physician. While they regarded the publicans and gentiles as
6:23
perishing from diseases of the soul, Then was it not his work as a
6:27
physician to go to the very class that needed his help. But although the
6:30
Pharisees thought so highly of themselves, they were really in a worse condition than
6:35
the ones they despised. The publicans were less bigoted and self sufficient, and
6:41
thus were more open to the influence of truth. Jesus said to the rabbis,
6:46
go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice.
6:50
Thus he showed that while they claimed to expound the word of God,
6:55
they were wholly ignorant of its spirit. The Pharisees were silenced for the time,
7:00
but only became more determined in their enmity. They next sought out the
7:04
disciples of John the Baptist and tried to set them against the Savior. These
7:09
Pharisees had not accepted the mission of the Baptist. They had pointed in scorn
7:14
to his abstemious life, his simple habits, his coarse garments, and had
7:18
declared him a fanatic. Because he denounced their hypocrisy. They had resisted his
7:24
words and had tried to stir up the people against him. The spirit of
7:28
God had moved upon the hearts of these scorners, convicting them of sin,
7:32
But they had rejected the counsel of God and had declared that John was possessed
7:36
of a devil. Now, when Jesus came mingling with people, eating and
7:42
drinking at their tables, they accused him of being a glutton and a winebibber.
7:46
The very ones who made this charge were themselves guilty, as God is
7:50
misrepresented and clothed by Satan with his own attributes. So the Lord's messengers were
7:57
falsified by these wicked men. The Pharisees would not consider that Jesus was eating
8:03
with publicans and sinners in order to bring the light of heaven to those who
8:07
sat in darkness. They would not see that every word dropped by the divine
8:11
teacher was a living seed that would germinate and bear fruit to the glory of
8:16
God. They had determined not to accept the light, and although they had
8:20
opposed the mission of the Baptist, they were now ready to court the friendship
8:24
of his disciples. Hoping to secure their co operation against Jesus, they represented
8:30
that Jesus was setting it naught the ancient traditions, and they contrasted the austere
8:35
piety of the Baptist with the course of Jesus and feasting with publicans and sinners.
8:39
The disciples of John were at this time in great sorrow. It was
8:43
before their visit to Jesus with John's message, their beloved teacher was in prison,
8:50
and they passed their days in mourning, and Jesus was making no effort
8:54
to release John, and even appeared to cast discredit on his teaching. If
8:58
John had been sit by God, God, why did Jesus and his disciple
9:01
pursue a course so widely different. The disciples of John had not a clear
9:05
understanding of Christ's work, They thought there might be some foundation for the charges
9:11
of the Pharisees. They observed many of the rules prescribed by the rabbis,
9:15
and even hoped to be justified by the works of the law. Fasting was
9:18
practiced by the Jews as an act of merit, and the most rigid among
9:22
them fasted two days and every week. The Pharisees and John's disciples were fasting
9:28
when the latter came to Jesus with the inquiry, why do we and the
9:31
Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not very tenderly? Jesus answered them
9:39
he did not try to correct their erroneous conception of fasting, but only to
9:43
set them right in regard to his own mission. And he did this by
9:46
employing the same figure that the Baptist himself had used in his testimony to Jesus.
9:52
John had said he that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the
9:56
friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him reach joyseth greatly because of
10:01
the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. John three twenty nine.
10:07
The disciples of John could not fail to recall these words of their teacher
10:11
as taking up the illustration. Jesus said, can ye make the children of
10:16
the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? The Prince of Heaven
10:20
was among his people. The greatest gift of God had been given to the
10:24
world. Joy to the poor, for Christ had come to make them heirs
10:28
of his kingdom. Joy to the rich, for he would teach them how
10:33
to secure eternal riches. Joy to the ignorant, he would make them wise
10:37
unto salvation. Joy to the learned. He would open to them deeper mysteries
10:43
than they had ever fathomed. Truths that had been hidden from the foundation of
10:46
the world would be opened to men by the Saviour's mission. John the Baptist
10:52
had rejoiced to behold the Savior. What occasion for rejoicing had the disciples who
10:56
were privileged to walk and talk with them? Majesty of heaven. This was
11:01
not a time for them to mourn and fast. They must open their hearts
11:05
to receive the light of His glory, that they might shed light upon those
11:09
who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. It was a bright
11:13
picture which the words of Christ had called up, but across it lay a
11:16
heavy shadow, which his eye alone discerned. The days will come, he
11:20
said, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, And then shall
11:24
they fast. In those days when they should see their Lord betrayed and crucified,
11:30
the disciples would mourn and fast. In his last words to them in
11:33
the upper chamber, he said, a little while, and ye shall not
11:37
see me. And again a little while, and ye shall see me.
11:41
Verily. Verily, I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament,
11:45
but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, But your sorrow
11:50
shall be turned into joy. John sixteen, nineteen twenty. When he should
11:54
come forth from the tomb, their sorrows would be turned to joy. After
12:00
his ascension, he was to be absent in person, but through the comforter
12:03
he would still be with them, and they were not to spend their time
12:07
in mourning. This was what Satan wanted. He desired them to give the
12:11
world the impression that they had been deceived and disappointed. But by faith,
12:16
they were to look to the sanctuary above, where Jesus was ministering for them.
12:22
They were to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit, his representative,
12:26
and to rejoice in the light of his presence. Yet days of temptation and
12:30
trial would come when they would be brought into conflict with the rulers of this
12:33
world and the leaders of the kingdom of darkness. When Christ was not personally
12:37
with them, and they failed to discern the comforter, then it would be
12:41
more fitting for them to fast. The Pharisees sought to exalt themselves by their
12:46
rigorous observance of forms, while their hearts were filled with envy and strife.
12:52
Behold, says the scripture, ye fast for strife and debate, and to
12:56
smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye shall not fast as ye do this
13:01
day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such
13:05
a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul?
13:09
Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush and a spread sackcloth
13:13
and ashes under him, wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day
13:18
to the Lord Isaiah fifty eight four and five. The true fast is no
13:24
mere formal service. The scripture describes the fast that God has chosen to loose
13:30
the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the
13:33
oppressed go free. And that ye break every yoke, to draw out thy
13:37
soul to the hungry, and satisfy thee afflicted soul Isaiah fifty eight six and
13:43
ten. Here is set forth the very spirit and character of the work of
13:48
Christ. His whole life was a sacrifice of himself for the saving of the
13:52
world. Whether fasting in the wilderness a temptation, or eating with the publicans
13:56
at Matthew's feast, he was giving his life for the redemption of the lost,
14:01
not an idle mourning in mere bodily humiliation and multitudinous sacrifices. Is the
14:07
true spirit a devotion manifested, but it is shown in the surrender of self
14:13
and willing service to God and Man. Continuing his answer to the disciples of
14:18
John, Jesus spoke a parable saying, no man putteth a piece of a
14:22
new garment upon an old. If otherwise than both the new maketh a rent
14:28
and the peace that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
14:33
The message of John the Baptist was not to be interwoven with tradition and
14:37
superstition. An attempt to blend the pretense of the Pharisees with the devotion of
14:41
John would only make more evident the breach between them. Nor could the principles
14:46
of Christ's teaching be united with the forms of Phariseeism. Christ was not to
14:52
close up the breach that had been made by the teachings of John. He
14:54
would make more distinct the separation between the old and the new. Us further
15:00
illustrated this fact, saying, no man putteth new wine into old bottles,
15:05
else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled, and the bottles
15:09
shall perish. The skin bottles, which were used as vessels to contain the
15:13
new wine, after a time became dry and brittle, and were then worthless
15:18
to serve the same purpose. Again, in this familiar illustration, Jesus presented
15:22
the condition of the Jewish leaders, priests and scribes and rulers were fixed in
15:28
a rut of ceremonies and tradition. Their hearts had become contracted, like the
15:33
dried up wine skins to which He had compared them. While they remained satisfied
15:37
with a legal religion, it was impossible for them to become the depositaries of
15:41
the living truth of Heaven. They thought their own righteousness all sufficient and did
15:48
not desire that a new element should be brought into their religion. The good
15:52
will of God to men they did not accept as something apart from themselves.
15:56
They connected it with their own merit because of their good work. The faith
16:00
that works by love and purifies a soul could find no place for union with
16:06
the religion of the Pharisees, made up of ceremonies and the injunctions of men.
16:11
The effort to unite the teachings of Jesus with the established religion would be
16:15
vain. The vital truth of God, like fermenting wine, would burst the
16:21
old, decaying bottles of the Pharisaical tradition. The Pharisees thought themselves too wise
16:26
to need instruction, too righteous to need salvation, too highly honored to need
16:32
the honor that comes from Christ, the savior turned away from them to find
16:36
others who would receive the message of heaven. In the untutored fishermen, in
16:41
the publican at the market place, in the woman of Sunaria, in the
16:45
common people who heard him. Gladly he found his new bottles for the new
16:48
wine. The instrumentalities to be used in the Gospel work are those souls who
16:55
gladly receive the light which God sends them. These are His agencies for imparting
17:00
the knowledge of truth to the world. If through the grace of Christ,
17:03
his people will become new bottles, he will fill them with new wine.
17:08
The teaching of Christ, thought was represented by the new wine, was not
17:12
a new doctrine, but the revelation of that which had been taught from the
17:17
beginning. But to the Pharisees, the truth of God had lost its original
17:22
significance and beauty. To them, Christ's teaching was new and almost every respect,
17:27
and it was unrecognized and unacknowledged. Jesus pointed out the power of false
17:33
teaching to destroy the appreciation and desire for truth. No man, he said,
17:38
having drunk old wine straightway, desire it new. For he saith,
17:42
the old is better all the truth that has been given to the world through
17:48
patriarchs and prophets, shone out in new beauty in the words of Christ.
17:52
But the scribes and Pharisees had no desire for the precious new wine. Until
17:56
empteed of the old traditions, custom and practices. They had no place in
18:02
mind or heart for the teachings of Christ. They clung to the dead forms
18:07
and turned away from the living truth and the power of God. It was
18:11
this that proved the ruin of the Jews, and it will prove the ruin
18:15
of many souls in our own day. Thousands are making the same mistake as
18:19
did the Pharisees, whom Christ reproved at Matthew's Feast. Rather than give up
18:23
some cherished idea or discard some idol of opinion, many refuse the truth which
18:30
comes down from the Father of Light. They trust in self and depend upon
18:33
their own wisdom, and do not realize their spiritual poverty. They insist on
18:38
being saved in some way by which they may perform some important work. When
18:44
they see that there is no way of weaving self into the work, they
18:48
reject. The salvation provided a legal religion can never lead souls to Christ.
18:55
For it is a loveless, christless religion. Fasting a prayer that is actuated
19:00
by a self justifying spirit, is an abomination in the sight of God.
19:04
The solemn assembly for worship, the round of religious ceremonies, the external humiliation,
19:11
the imposing sacrifice proclaim that the doer of these things regards himself as righteous
19:17
and is entitled to heaven. But it is all a deception. Our own
19:22
works can never purchase salvation, as it was in the days of Christ,
19:26
so it is now the Pharisees did not know their spiritual destitution. To them
19:33
comes the message. Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods,
19:37
and have need of nothing, and knoweest not that thou art wretched and miserable,
19:42
and poor, and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy me
19:48
gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white, raiment,
19:53
that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do
19:57
not appear. Revelation three, seventeen eighteen. Faith and love are the gold
20:03
tried in the fire. But with many the gold has become dim and the
20:07
rich treasure has been lost. The righteousness of Christ is to them as a
20:12
robe unworn, a fountain untouched. To them, it is said, I
20:18
have somewhat against THEE, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore,
20:22
from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works, or
20:27
else I will come unto THEE quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his
20:32
place, except thou repent. Revelation two four and five. The sacrifices of
20:38
God are a broken spirit, are broken and in a contrite heart. O
20:42
God, thou wilt not despise Psalms fifty one seventeen. Man must be emptied
20:48
of self before he can be, in the fullest sense a believer in Jesus.
20:55
When self is renounced, then the Lord can make man a new creature.
21:00
Bottles can contain the new wine. The love of Christ will animate the
21:03
believer with new life in him who looks unto the author and finisher of our
21:08
faith. The character of Christ will be manifest. End of Chapter twenty eight