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

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  The true sign again, he went out from the border's attire and came through
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  side on unto the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of
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  de Capolis Mark seven thirty one r V. It was in the region of
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  de Capalis that the demoniacs of Gergassa had been healed. Here the people,
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  alarmed at the destruction of the swine, had constrained Jesus to depart from among
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  them, but they had listened to the messengers he left behind, and a
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  desire was aroused to see him. As he came again into that region,
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  a crowd gathered about him, and a deaf, stammering man was brought to
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  him. Jesus did not, according to his custom, restore the man by
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  a word, only taking him apart from the multitude, he put his fingers
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  in his ears and touched his tongue. Looking up to Heaven. He sighed
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  at the thought of the ears that would not be opened to the truth,
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  the tongues that refused to acknowledge the Redeemer. At the word be opened,
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  the man's speech was restored, and, disregarding the command to tell no man,
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  he published a brad the story of his cure, Jesus went up into
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  a mountain, and there the multitude flocked to him, bringing their sick in
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  lame and laying them at his feet. He healed them all, and the
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  people heathen as they were, glorified the God of Israel. For three days,
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  they continued to throng about the Savior, sleeping at night in the open
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  air, and through the day, pressing eagerly to hear the words of Christ
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  and to see his works. At the end of three days, their food
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  was spent. Jesus would not send them away hungry, and he called upon
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  his disciples to give them food again. The disciples revealed their unbelief at besta
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  they had seen how with Christ's blessing their little store availed for the feeding of
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  the multitude. Yet they did not now bring forward their all, trusting his
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  power to multiply it for the hungry crowds. Moreover, those whom he fed
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  at Besata were Jews. These were gentiles and heathen. Jewish prejudice was still
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  strong in the hearts of the disciples, and they answered, Jesus, whence
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  can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness. But obedient
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  to his word, they brought him what they had, seven loaves and two
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  fishes. The multitude were fed seven large baskets of fragments. Remaining four thousand
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  men besides women and children were thus refreshed, and Jesus sent them away with
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  glad and grateful hearts. Then, taking a boat with his disciples, he
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  crossed the lake to Magdala, at the southern end of the plain of Gennesaret,
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  in the border of Tire and Sidon. His spirit had been refreshed by
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  the confiding trust of the Seraphenician woman. The heathen people of Decapolis had received
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  him with gladness. Now, as he landed once more in Galilee, where
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  his power had been most strikingly manifested, where most of his works of mercy
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  had been performed, and his teaching given, he was met with contemptuous unbelief.
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  A deputation of Pharisees had been joined by representatives from their rich and lordly
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  Sadducees, the party of the priest, the skeptics and aristocracy of the nation.
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  The two sects had been at bitter enmity. The Sadducees courted the favor
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  of the ruling power in order to maintain their own position and authority. The
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  Pharisees, on the other hand, fostered the popular hatred against the Romans,
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  longing for the time when they could throw off the yoke of the conqueror.
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  But Pharisee and Sadducey, now united against Christ like seeks like and evil wherever
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  it exists, leagues with evil for the destruction of the good. Now,
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  the Pharisees and Sadduces came to Christ asking for a sign from heaven. When
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  in the days of Joshua, Israel went out to battle with the Canaanites at
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  Bethhorn, the son had stood still at the leader's command until victory was gained,
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  and many similar wonders had been manifest in their history. Some such sign
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  was demanded of Jesus. But these signs were not what the Jews needed.
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  No mere external evidence could benefit them. What they needed was not intellectual enlightenment,
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  but spiritual renovation. O ye hypocrite, said Jesus, ye can discern
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  the face of the sky. By studying the sky, they could foretell the
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  weather, But can he not discern the signs of the times. Christ's own
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  words, spoken with the power of the Holy Spirit, that convicted them of
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  sin, were the sign that God had given for their salvation. And signs
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  direct from Heaven had been given to attest the mission of Christ. The songs
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  of the angels to the shepherds, the star that guided the wise men,
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  the dove, and the voice from Heaven at his baptism were witnesses for him,
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  and he sighed deeply in his spirit and saith. Why doth this generation
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  seek after a sign? There shall no sign be given unto it. But
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  the sign of the prophet Jonas. As Jonah was three days and three nights
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  in the belly of the whale, Christ was to be the same time in
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  the heart of the earth. And as the preaching of Jonah was a sign
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  to the Ninevites, so Christ's preaching was a sign to his generation. But
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  what a contrast in the reception of the word. The people of the great
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  heathen city trembled as they heard the warning from God. Kings and nobles humbled
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  themselves. The high and the lowly together cried to the God of Heaven,
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  and his mercy was granted unto them. The men of nine of us shall
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  rise in judgment with this generation, Christ had said, and shall condemn it
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  because they repented at the preaching of Jonas. And behold, a greater than
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  Jonas is here Matthew twelve forty and forty one. Every miracle that Christ performed
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  was a sign of his divinity. He was doing the very work that had
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  been foretold of the Messiah. But to the Pharisees, these works of mercy
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  were a positive offense. The Jewish leaders looked with heartless indifference on human suffering.
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  In many cases, their selfishness and oppression had caused the affliction that Christ
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  relieved. Thus his miracles were to them a reproach that which led the Jews
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  to reject the Savior. Work was the highest evidence of his divine character.
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  The greatest significance of his miracles is seen in the fact that they were for
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  the blessing of humanity. The highest evidence that came from God is that his
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  life revealed the character of God. He did the works and spoke the words
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  of God. Such a life as the greatest of all miracles. When the
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  message of truth is presented in our day, there are many who, like
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  the Jews, cry show us a sign work as a miracle. Christ wrought
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  no miracle at the demand of the pharisees, He wrought no miracle in the
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  wilderness and answer to Satan's insinuations. He does not impart to us power to
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  vindicate ourselves or to satisfy the demands of unbelief and pride. But the Gospel
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  is not without a sign of its divine origin. Is it not a miracle
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  that we can break from the bondage of Satan? Enmity against Satan is not
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  natural to the human heart. It is implanted by the grace of God.
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  When one who has been controlled by a stubborn, wayward will is set free
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  and yields himself wholeheartedly to the drawing of God's heavenly agencies, a miracle is
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  wrought. So also when a man who has been under strong delusion comes to
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  understand moral truth. Every time a soul is converted and learns to love God
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  and keep his commandments, the promise of God is fulfilled. A new heart
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  also will I give you, And a new spirit will I put within you?
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  Ezekiel, thirty six, twenty six. The change in human hearts the
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  transformation of human characters is a miracle that reveals an ever living savior working to
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  rescue souls. A consistent life in Christ is a great miracle in the preaching
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  of the Word of God. The sign that should be manifest now and always
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  is the presence of the Holy Spirit to make the Word a regenerating power to
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  those that hear. This is God's witness before the world to the divine mission
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  of his son. Those who desire a sign from Jesus had so hardened their
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  hearts in unbelief that they did not discern in his character the likeness of God.
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  They would not see that his mission was in fulfillment of the scriptures.
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  In the parable of the rich Man in Lazarus, Jesus said to the Pharisees,
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  if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded.
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  Though one rose from the dead Luke sixteen thirty one, no sign that
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  could be given in heaven or earth would benefit them. Jesus sighed deeply in
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  his spirit, and, turning from the group of cavaliers, re entered the
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  boat with his disciples. In sorrowful silence. They again crossed the lake.
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  They did not, however, return to the place they had left, but
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  directed their course towards Paseda, near where the five thousand had been fed.
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  Upon reaching the farther side, Jesus said, take heed and beware of the
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  leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. The Jews had been accustomed since
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  the days of Moses to put away leavin from their houses at the Passover season,
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  and they had thus been taught to regard it as a type of sin.
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  Yet the disciples failed to understand, and Jesus, in their sudden departure
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  from Magdala, they had forgotten to take bread, and they had with them
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  only one loaf. To this circumstance, they understood Christ to refer warning them
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  not to buy bread of a Pharisee or a sadducey. Their lack of faith
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  and spiritual insight had often led them to a similar misconception of his words.
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  Now Jesus reproved them for thinking that he who had fed thousands with a few
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  fishes and barley loaves, could, in that solemn warning have referred merely to
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  temporal food. There was a danger that the crafty reasoning of the Pharisees and
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  the Sadducees would leaven his disciples with unbelief, causing them to think lightly of
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  the works of Christ. The disciples were inclined to think that their masters should
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  have granted the demand for a sign in the heavens. They believed that He
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  was fully able to do this, and that such a sign would put his
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  enemies to silence. They did not discern the hypocrisy of these cavaliers. Months
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  afterwards, when they were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that
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  they trode one upon another, Jesus repeated the same teaching. He began to
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  say unto his disciples. First of all, beware ye of the leaven of
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  the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy Luke twelve one. The leven placed in the
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  meal works imperceptibly changing the whole mass to its own nature. So if hypocrisy
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  is allowed to exist in the heart, it permeates a character in the life.
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  A striking example of the apocrisy of the Pharisees. Christ had already rebuked
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  in denouncing the practice of Corban, by which a neglect of filial duty was
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  concealed under a pretense of liberality to the temple. The scribes and Pharisees were
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  insinuating deceptive principles they concealed the real tendency of their doctrines and improved every occasion
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  to instill them artfully into the minds of their hearers. These false principles,
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  when once accepted, worked like Levitt and the Meal, permeating and transforming the
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  character. It was this decen deceptive teaching that made it so hard for the
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  people to receive the words of Christ. The same influences are working to day
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  through those who try to explain the Law of God in such a way as
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  to make it conform to their practices. This class does not attack the law
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  openly, but put forward speculative theories that undermine its principles. They explain it
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  so as to destroy its force. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was the product
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  of self seeking. The glorification of themselves was the object of their lives.
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  It was this that led them to pervert and misapply the scriptures, and blinded
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  them to the purpose of Christ mission this subtle evil, even the disciples of
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  Christ were in danger of cherishing. Those who classed themselves with the followers of
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  Jesus, but who had not left all in order to become His disciples,
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  were influenced in a great degree by the reasoning of the Pharisees. They were
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  often vacillating between faith and unbelief, and they did not discern the treasures of
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  wisdom hidden in Christ. The disciples, though outwardly they had left all for
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  Jesus sake, had not in heart ceased to seek great things for themselves.
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  It was this spirit that prompted the strife as to who should be greatest.
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  It was this that came between them and Christ, making them so little in
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  sympathy with his mission of self sacrifice, so slow to comprehend the mystery of
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  redemption. As leaven, if left to complete, its work, will cause
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  corruption and decay. So does the self seeking spirit cherished work, the defilement
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  and ruin of the soul. Among the followers of our Lord to day,
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  as of old. How widespread is this subtle, deceptive sin. How often
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  our service to Christ, our communion with one another, is marred by the
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  secret desire to exalt self. How ready the thought of self gratulation and the
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  longing for human approval. It is the love of self, the desire for
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  an easier way than God is appointed, that leads to the substitution of human
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  theories and trunditions for the divine precepts. To his own disciples, the warning
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  words of Christ are spoken, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the
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  Pharisees. The religion of Christ is sincerity itself. Zeal for God's glory is
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  the motive implanted by the Holy Spirit, and only the effectual working of the
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  Spirit can implant this motive. Only the power of God can banish self seeking
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  in hypocrisy. This change is a sign of His working. When the faith
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  we accept destroys selfishness and pretense, when it leads us to seek God's glory
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  and not our own, we may know that it is of the right order.
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  Father, Glorify thy name. John twelve twenty eight was the keynote of
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  Christ's life, and if we follow him, this will be the keynote of
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  our life. He commands us to walk even as he walked, and hereby
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  we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. First John
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  two, six and three, end of Chapter forty four