Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 44 - The Desire of Ages - Ellen Gould
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- The true sign again, he went out from the border's attire and came through side on unto the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of de Capolis Mark seven thirty one r V. It was in the region of de Capalis that the demoniacs of Gergassa had been healed. Here the people, alarmed at the destruction of the swine, had constrained Jesus to depart from among them, but they had listened to the messengers he left behind, and a desire was aroused to see him. As he came again into that region, a crowd gathered about him, and a deaf, stammering man was brought to him. Jesus did not, according to his custom, restore the man by a word, only taking him apart from the multitude, he put his fingers in his ears and touched his tongue. Looking up to Heaven. He sighed at the thought of the ears that would not be opened to the truth, the tongues that refused to acknowledge the Redeemer. At the word be opened, the man's speech was restored, and, disregarding the command to tell no man, he published a brad the story of his cure, Jesus went up into a mountain, and there the multitude flocked to him, bringing their sick in lame and laying them at his feet. He healed them all, and the people heathen as they were, glorified the God of Israel. For three days, they continued to throng about the Savior, sleeping at night in the open air, and through the day, pressing eagerly to hear the words of Christ and to see his works. At the end of three days, their food was spent. Jesus would not send them away hungry, and he called upon his disciples to give them food again. The disciples revealed their unbelief at besta they had seen how with Christ's blessing their little store availed for the feeding of the multitude. Yet they did not now bring forward their all, trusting his power to multiply it for the hungry crowds. Moreover, those whom he fed at Besata were Jews. These were gentiles and heathen. Jewish prejudice was still strong in the hearts of the disciples, and they answered, Jesus, whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness. But obedient to his word, they brought him what they had, seven loaves and two fishes. The multitude were fed seven large baskets of fragments. Remaining four thousand men besides women and children were thus refreshed, and Jesus sent them away with glad and grateful hearts. Then, taking a boat with his disciples, he crossed the lake to Magdala, at the southern end of the plain of Gennesaret, in the border of Tire and Sidon. His spirit had been refreshed by the confiding trust of the Seraphenician woman. The heathen people of Decapolis had received him with gladness. Now, as he landed once more in Galilee, where his power had been most strikingly manifested, where most of his works of mercy had been performed, and his teaching given, he was met with contemptuous unbelief. A deputation of Pharisees had been joined by representatives from their rich and lordly Sadducees, the party of the priest, the skeptics and aristocracy of the nation. The two sects had been at bitter enmity. The Sadducees courted the favor of the ruling power in order to maintain their own position and authority. The Pharisees, on the other hand, fostered the popular hatred against the Romans, longing for the time when they could throw off the yoke of the conqueror. But Pharisee and Sadducey, now united against Christ like seeks like and evil wherever it exists, leagues with evil for the destruction of the good. Now, the Pharisees and Sadduces came to Christ asking for a sign from heaven. When in the days of Joshua, Israel went out to battle with the Canaanites at Bethhorn, the son had stood still at the leader's command until victory was gained, and many similar wonders had been manifest in their history. Some such sign was demanded of Jesus. But these signs were not what the Jews needed. No mere external evidence could benefit them. What they needed was not intellectual enlightenment, but spiritual renovation. O ye hypocrite, said Jesus, ye can discern the face of the sky. By studying the sky, they could foretell the weather, But can he not discern the signs of the times. Christ's own words, spoken with the power of the Holy Spirit, that convicted them of sin, were the sign that God had given for their salvation. And signs direct from Heaven had been given to attest the mission of Christ. The songs of the angels to the shepherds, the star that guided the wise men, the dove, and the voice from Heaven at his baptism were witnesses for him, and he sighed deeply in his spirit and saith. Why doth this generation seek after a sign? There shall no sign be given unto it. But the sign of the prophet Jonas. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, Christ was to be the same time in the heart of the earth. And as the preaching of Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so Christ's preaching was a sign to his generation. But what a contrast in the reception of the word. The people of the great heathen city trembled as they heard the warning from God. Kings and nobles humbled themselves. The high and the lowly together cried to the God of Heaven, and his mercy was granted unto them. The men of nine of us shall rise in judgment with this generation, Christ had said, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas. And behold, a greater than Jonas is here Matthew twelve forty and forty one. Every miracle that Christ performed was a sign of his divinity. He was doing the very work that had been foretold of the Messiah. But to the Pharisees, these works of mercy were a positive offense. The Jewish leaders looked with heartless indifference on human suffering. In many cases, their selfishness and oppression had caused the affliction that Christ relieved. Thus his miracles were to them a reproach that which led the Jews to reject the Savior. Work was the highest evidence of his divine character. The greatest significance of his miracles is seen in the fact that they were for the blessing of humanity. The highest evidence that came from God is that his life revealed the character of God. He did the works and spoke the words of God. Such a life as the greatest of all miracles. When the message of truth is presented in our day, there are many who, like the Jews, cry show us a sign work as a miracle. Christ wrought no miracle at the demand of the pharisees, He wrought no miracle in the wilderness and answer to Satan's insinuations. He does not impart to us power to vindicate ourselves or to satisfy the demands of unbelief and pride. But the Gospel is not without a sign of its divine origin. Is it not a miracle that we can break from the bondage of Satan? Enmity against Satan is not natural to the human heart. It is implanted by the grace of God. When one who has been controlled by a stubborn, wayward will is set free and yields himself wholeheartedly to the drawing of God's heavenly agencies, a miracle is wrought. So also when a man who has been under strong delusion comes to understand moral truth. Every time a soul is converted and learns to love God and keep his commandments, the promise of God is fulfilled. A new heart also will I give you, And a new spirit will I put within you? Ezekiel, thirty six, twenty six. The change in human hearts the transformation of human characters is a miracle that reveals an ever living savior working to rescue souls. A consistent life in Christ is a great miracle in the preaching of the Word of God. The sign that should be manifest now and always is the presence of the Holy Spirit to make the Word a regenerating power to those that hear. This is God's witness before the world to the divine mission of his son. Those who desire a sign from Jesus had so hardened their hearts in unbelief that they did not discern in his character the likeness of God. They would not see that his mission was in fulfillment of the scriptures. In the parable of the rich Man in Lazarus, Jesus said to the Pharisees, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded. Though one rose from the dead Luke sixteen thirty one, no sign that could be given in heaven or earth would benefit them. Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit, and, turning from the group of cavaliers, re entered the boat with his disciples. In sorrowful silence. They again crossed the lake. They did not, however, return to the place they had left, but directed their course towards Paseda, near where the five thousand had been fed. Upon reaching the farther side, Jesus said, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. The Jews had been accustomed since the days of Moses to put away leavin from their houses at the Passover season, and they had thus been taught to regard it as a type of sin. Yet the disciples failed to understand, and Jesus, in their sudden departure from Magdala, they had forgotten to take bread, and they had with them only one loaf. To this circumstance, they understood Christ to refer warning them not to buy bread of a Pharisee or a sadducey. Their lack of faith and spiritual insight had often led them to a similar misconception of his words. Now Jesus reproved them for thinking that he who had fed thousands with a few fishes and barley loaves, could, in that solemn warning have referred merely to temporal food. There was a danger that the crafty reasoning of the Pharisees and the Sadducees would leaven his disciples with unbelief, causing them to think lightly of the works of Christ. The disciples were inclined to think that their masters should have granted the demand for a sign in the heavens. They believed that He was fully able to do this, and that such a sign would put his enemies to silence. They did not discern the hypocrisy of these cavaliers. Months afterwards, when they were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, Jesus repeated the same teaching. He began to say unto his disciples. First of all, beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy Luke twelve one. The leven placed in the meal works imperceptibly changing the whole mass to its own nature. So if hypocrisy is allowed to exist in the heart, it permeates a character in the life. A striking example of the apocrisy of the Pharisees. Christ had already rebuked in denouncing the practice of Corban, by which a neglect of filial duty was concealed under a pretense of liberality to the temple. The scribes and Pharisees were insinuating deceptive principles they concealed the real tendency of their doctrines and improved every occasion to instill them artfully into the minds of their hearers. These false principles, when once accepted, worked like Levitt and the Meal, permeating and transforming the character. It was this decen deceptive teaching that made it so hard for the people to receive the words of Christ. The same influences are working to day through those who try to explain the Law of God in such a way as to make it conform to their practices. This class does not attack the law openly, but put forward speculative theories that undermine its principles. They explain it so as to destroy its force. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was the product of self seeking. The glorification of themselves was the object of their lives. It was this that led them to pervert and misapply the scriptures, and blinded them to the purpose of Christ mission this subtle evil, even the disciples of Christ were in danger of cherishing. Those who classed themselves with the followers of Jesus, but who had not left all in order to become His disciples, were influenced in a great degree by the reasoning of the Pharisees. They were often vacillating between faith and unbelief, and they did not discern the treasures of wisdom hidden in Christ. The disciples, though outwardly they had left all for Jesus sake, had not in heart ceased to seek great things for themselves. It was this spirit that prompted the strife as to who should be greatest. It was this that came between them and Christ, making them so little in sympathy with his mission of self sacrifice, so slow to comprehend the mystery of redemption. As leaven, if left to complete, its work, will cause corruption and decay. So does the self seeking spirit cherished work, the defilement and ruin of the soul. Among the followers of our Lord to day, as of old. How widespread is this subtle, deceptive sin. How often our service to Christ, our communion with one another, is marred by the secret desire to exalt self. How ready the thought of self gratulation and the longing for human approval. It is the love of self, the desire for an easier way than God is appointed, that leads to the substitution of human theories and trunditions for the divine precepts. To his own disciples, the warning words of Christ are spoken, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. The religion of Christ is sincerity itself. Zeal for God's glory is the motive implanted by the Holy Spirit, and only the effectual working of the Spirit can implant this motive. Only the power of God can banish self seeking in hypocrisy. This change is a sign of His working. When the faith we accept destroys selfishness and pretense, when it leads us to seek God's glory and not our own, we may know that it is of the right order. Father, Glorify thy name. John twelve twenty eight was the keynote of Christ's life, and if we follow him, this will be the keynote of our life. He commands us to walk even as he walked, and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. First John two, six and three, end of Chapter forty four