Greetings MOL Family!

Jesus says to His angel, Go through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of men that do what? — Sigh and cry for the abominations that be done in the midst thereof…

What Do You Want?

Now, let me make very plain what this does not mean. It does not mean to get out a mimeograph sheet and send it all over the country to tell people about the faults of the church and its leaders. Oh no. In the first place, it isn’t necessary. There’s plenty of sin and worldliness evident. We do not need some self-appointed reporter to keep us in touch with the worldly trend. They’re all about us, are they not?

In the second place, (don’t miss this) the very spirit to hunt for such things develops in one a critical, judging, self-righteous attitude, and it’s just a question of which way we get out of the Remnant church. We can go with the worldly crowd and be washed overboard in the terrible storm of persecution that’s ahead, or we can go with the critical crowd and go off eventually with some offshoot; you can take it on one hand, or you can take it on the other.

But God will have a remnant, a solid core within His last day church, the Seventh-day Adventist church who hold to the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. They’re not going to be diverted by this worldliness; neither are they going to be diverted by this criticism, and off-shootism – neither one. They’re not going to spend their time reading these offshoot papers, and books, and letters. That isn’t the way to sigh and cry my dear friends. Do you know the way to sigh and cry?

I saw some, with strong faith and agonizing cries, pleading with God. [Pleading with whom? – with God] Their countenances were pale and marked with deep anxiety, expressive of their internal struggle. Firmness and great earnestness was expressed in their countenances; large drops of perspiration fell from their foreheads. Now and then their faces would light up with the marks of God’s approbation, and again the same solemn, earnest, anxious look would settle upon them. – Ibid., pg. 269

“Oh” says one, “this looks rather serious and somber to me”. Yes, it is. “I don’t see much fun in this”. No, there isn’t. “Well, I don’t think I want to go that way”.

My dear friends, do you want to take a joy ride to hell? Do you want the jazz and the rock and roll, or whatever the latest name for the world’s music may happen to be? Do you want that to keep your mind so hypnotized that you can’t even hear the cries of the lost as they plunge over the Niagara into eternal loss, and eternal death? Do you want to be made as comfortable and thrilled as possible in the last few remaining moments of probation, or do you want to awake to the reality of life?

Life is real. The One who loves us and wants us to be happy, and will make us happy if we will let Him; His heart is bleeding and broken. He had to attend a hundred thousand funerals today. How would you feel if even 5 of your best friends had died in one day? Wouldn’t you like some sympathy, some understanding, somebody to at least put their arm around you, and perhaps weep a few tears with you?

But Jesus must attend another hundred thousand funerals tomorrow. And every one of those is more precious to Him than anybody is to you. Nearly all of them are lost for all eternity.

Is this the meaning of life? Yes it is. There will be an eternity to take trips all through the universe. We’re living in a time when anybody, high or low, rich or poor, young or old, if they get an idea they want to run here, run there; somewhere they find the time and the money. An account must be rendered to God for every hour of time and every dollar spent.

Ah, my friends, somebody is going to sigh and cry over these abominations, the extravagance, the luxury. The waste of money by young and old today is appalling, while in other parts of the world, literally millions of people go to bed every night never having had a full meal. But here in this country, we’re just wasting. Every young person has to have an automobile today – why? Status, he’s not anybody if he doesn’t have one; and so families have 2, 3, 4 cars. Where does all the money come from?

Don’t misunderstand me. It isn’t for me to judge you or you to judge somebody else. I challenge your soul to go in the secret place of prayer and find out from God what He wants you to do with your time, your money, your family.

I challenge you to go on your knees and ask God whether you have been contaminated with the spirit of worldliness; whether worldly dress has made its inroads in your life; whether worldly diet is being followed in your household; whether worldly reading abounds on your library table, and on your shelf; whether worldly music is being heard from your instruments of music; whether worldly education has been sold to you. All these things are solemn challenges, are they not?

Go through the midst of Jerusalem, the Lord says to His angel, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. These are not my words. These are not my thoughts. This is what Heaven has sent as its message in this closing hour. Read the 9th [chapter] of Ezekiel. Study it on your knees. Read this chapter in [Testimonies for the Church], Vol. 5, beginning on page 207.

Wrestle with God over these matters, and my dear friends, sin will cease to appear funny. Worldliness will cease appear desirable. All thought of keeping up with the Joneses will be banished from your soul. There will be just one thing you want to keep up with, and that is the blood-stained steps that Jesus has left on the highway to Heaven. Oh, let us get anxious and earnest to keep up with Him, what do you say?

These Are The Survivors

Concerning the Remnant, these with the mark, it is written:

…These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes… – Revelation 14:4

We’re going to follow Him through Orion soon. We’re going from world to world and star to star. But first we must follow Him here. We must follow Him from Bethlehem to Nazareth, from Nazareth to Jordan, from Jordan to the wilderness, from the wilderness to Capernaum and the ministry, the medical missionary work to help others. Then on to the upper room to minister with the towel, and on to Gethsemane to pray while others sleep; and then to the judgment hall, to witness before the howling mobs and the frowning judges. Yes friends, and on to Calvary.

Some of us may die as martyrs. Those who don’t and live through the time of trouble will go through the agony of Jacob’s trouble, which will be more than death. But finally, like our Lord who rose in triumph and ascended to the skies, we too shall ascend in glory to the greatest reception that any group of people have ever had in all the history of the world. These are the survivors. These are those who stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb, having the harps of God and having the name of Jesus and His Father’s name written in their foreheads.

Oh friends, it will be an eternal satisfaction to have stood with Him, even if we have to stand alone. But do not think that this program of sighing and crying and pleading with God in secret means a mournful, sorrowful, burden-filled, unhappy life — Far from it. It’s just the opposite. The happiest people in this world are not the ones that are pepped up, hipped up with the world’s drugs, and music, and fiction, and all the rest. They’re not the happy ones at all, they’re just deluded.

You know the happy ones are those who are closest to Jesus in His heart burden. Let me illustrate it. Suppose that one you love very dearly, perhaps your mother or father, or husband or wife is sick and in pain. Here they are in a room at home; and they lie there, day after day in pain. You don’t want to go around there, do you? That’s a kill joy. That puts a wet blanket on things. Let’s have a party tonight; throw a party and forget all this. No. The more you love the suffering one, the more you find your greatest satisfaction in being where? – Being with them; if you can’t do anything more than hold their hand.

Now if you don’t know what I mean, then you don’t know enough about love, that’s all. If what you think when you hear the word love is what Hollywood thinks, friends, you don’t understand what I’m talking about. If you really love somebody, you want to be with them most of all when they’re suffering. Am I right? And you don’t keep looking at your watch and say, “let me see, I’ve been here 5 minutes, I wonder how much time I ought to stay. I wonder when I can get back where the band is playing, and the dance is on, and the movies are showing, where there’s life – that’s where I want to be. I wonder how much longer I have to sit here. I wonder if she’d feel bad if I go now. I don’t like this, it’s depressing. I don’t like being around.” Do you see what I mean, my friends? The soul that feels that doesn’t even know the ABCs of love.

Let me tell you friends, if someone you love, and really love, is suffering, you want to be right there. And then if you find there’s something you can do to lift the load and ease the pain, you’re happy, am I right? It’s not an exciting happiness that makes you drunk and act foolish, but a deep happiness, an abiding peace that you wouldn’t trade for all the froth and mirth of this world. Some of you know what I’m talking about; all of you can know it.

Listen, Jesus, our Friend is on the cross. It didn’t start when they nailed Him there at nine o’clock Friday morning, and it didn’t stop when they took Him down and put Him in Joseph’s tomb. It began when sin began, and it can never stop until sin stops. Every sin in this world, from that day Eve took the fruit from the tree and gave it to Adam, down through that sad and terrible experience of the murder of Abel by his brother, Cain, on down through the long series of tragedies to the present hour, every sin has pierced the heart of Jesus. Every failure has wounded His soul.

Do you think about it? Some do. They’re the ones that will be marked in the foreheads. Their sorrow is His sorrow – the sorrow for sin. Their joy is His joy – the joy of getting people to leave the life of sin and accept His glorious way.

I testify to you that the greatest joy in all this world is the joy of soul winning. But it comes through pain and heart burden. It doesn’t come through throwing a party, and imitating Hollywood and Babylon. Oh, no.

The power to win souls comes in prayer. Pray alone in the secret place, and pray with one or two others. Young people, some of the greatest joys of my life have been, as a teenager and in my 20s having little prayer bands with young people, and getting them to start other prayer bands.

If you want something that will really thrill your heart in the proper use of the word thrill, not the thrill of some drug, or of some fiction, or some hippy program. If you want a real satisfaction (that perhaps is a better word than thrill) start praying for some soul, or somebody that isn’t converted, in the church or out. Then ask God to give you some other young person that will pray with you for that soul. Keep storming Heaven until something breaks.

Oh, I’ve seen young people do this. In one of the great cities of this country, one of the citadels of sin, I saw an army of young people that, by the grace of God, pulled 29 young people out of the world in two years by this prayer band ministry. You can have an experience my dear young friends.

The challenge of God is not just to keep out of the penitentiary. Oh, no. It’s to go all out for Him in wining souls. Give your life to soul winning ministry. Your job in this last hour isn’t to make a living; it’s to make a life, the life of Jesus.

Put your life on the altar and say, dear Jesus, from this moment on, my life and my love I give to Thee, Thou Lamb of God who died for me.

These are the survivors. All else are going to go so far and fast in the worldly way that eventually they will become marked with the mark of the beast – the mark of selfishness, the mark of self-interest. When that time comes, there’s only one thing that can happen: The men with the slaughter weapons are coming. And notice the young people as well as the older are going to be affected.

Oh, my dear young friends, you will either be a Daniel, a Joseph, an Esther, or you will be a Samson selling your soul for fleshly lust, an Esau selling your birthright for a mess of pottage.

Which will you be? This is the time, the harvest time when every plant is going to seed. The grapes are gathering that black hue which shows that they’re ready for the winepress. The grain is gathering that golden color shows that it’s ripe for the sickle.

The Son of God is soon to descend with His mighty angels to gather the harvest of the earth. Which will you be – the golden grain for the garner of God, or grapes for the winepress of His wrath? You will be fully one way or the other. There will be no middle ground, no neutral party. When the last crisis comes, and probation closes, there will be none who are halfway on the way to hell or halfway on the road to Heaven. Everyone will either have the seal of the living God or the mark of the beast. This is the crisis to which we have come, what will you do about it?

Can you, this coming week, go back to just ordinary living, just keeping up with what the political conventions are doing, and what the stock market is, and what the latest TV programs are, and how to have a good time, what to do to keep from being board? Can you my friend? While the Son of God hangs upon a cross, not of wood — the cross of this world’s sin, and in woe and in sorrow. He’s looking for somebody who will come and stand by His side, and cheer His heart with sympathy and understanding. Who will join with Him, a hundred percent, in reaching other souls and bringing them into the circle of His love?

Friend, I ask in Jesus’ name, is there somebody that for you this is decision time? For you, you could never go back and be what you were last week, and the week before. Is there somebody that has heard the call of God in your soul, and that from today on, there’s got to be a radical change in your life? If other people think you’re a fanatic, so be it. If other people think you’re extreme, so be it. There’s nothing extreme or fanatical in what I’m talking about my friends. It is just the opposite. This is real. This is what Jesus says. I have read it to you from His Bible, and from His testimony. And so I ask you, is there somebody that knows that if you follow what you have heard from God’s Word, today, unless you turn your back on it, it means you’ve got to turn your back on what you’ve been doing. Is there anybody like that, today?

Next week, we will continue on with our class rotation. Invite a friend, and we’ll see you then…

–Continue on to the next study–

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* This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.