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If perfection is understood to be required only of the 144,000, many professed Christians could remain in a lukewarm condition because they might think the same spiritual experience is not required of them. In the following pages we will examine what those requirements are. Center>Without Holiness No Man Shall See God "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." "Holiness is wholeness for God; it is the entire surrender of heart and life to the indwelling of the principles of heaven." "We are looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ. We may not be living when Christ shall come in power and great glory, for all are subject to death at any time, but if we are righteous, in harmony with the law of God, we shall respond to the voice that will call the people of God from their graves, and shall come forth to receive immortality. It is only the blessed and holy who will be ready for the first resurrection; for when Christ comes, He will not change the character. . . . The Word of God declares that we must be found blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing." "Christ came to this earth and lived a life of perfect obedience, that men and women, through His grace, might also live lives of perfect obedience. This is necessary to their salvation. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." "The holiness that God's word declares he must have before he can be saved is the result of the working of divine grace as he bows in submission to the discipline and restraining influences of the Spirit of truth." "The Lord reproves and corrects the people who profess to keep His law. He points out their sins and lays open their iniquity because He wishes to separate all sin and wickedness from them, that they may perfect holiness in His fear and be prepared to die in the Lord or to be translated to heaven. God rebukes, reproves, and corrects them, that they may be refined, sanctified, elevated, and finally exalted to His throne. . . . "God will accept nothing but purity and holiness; one spot, one wrinkle, one defect in the character, will forever debar them from heaven, with all its glories and treasures." "If you have become estranged and have failed to be Bible Christians, be converted; for the character you bear in probationary time will be the character you will have at the coming of Christ. If you would be a saint in heaven, you must first be a saint on earth. The traits of character you cherish in life will not be changed by death or by the resurrection. You will come up from the grave with the same disposition you manifested in your home and in society. Jesus does not change the character at His coming. The work of transformation must be done now. Our daily lives are determining our destiny." "All have sufficient light to see their sins and errors, if they desired to do so, and earnestly wished to put them away, and to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. God is too pure to behold iniquity. A sin is just as grievous in His sight in one case as in another. No exception will be made by an im-partial God." "What does the Lord require of His blood-bought heritage? - The sanctification of the whole being, - purity like the purity of Christ, perfect conformity to the will of God. . . . Into the holy city there can enter nothing that defileth, or maketh a lie. " "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart." "No one can be omnipotent, but all can cleanse themselves from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. God requires every soul to be pure and holy. We have hereditary tendencies to wrong. This is a part of self that no one need carry about. It is a weakness of humanity to pet selfishness, because it is a natural trait of character. But unless all selfishness is put away, unless self is crucified, we can never be holy as God is holy." "The only character that is of value in the sight of God is that character which is free from every taint of selfishness." "You need to die daily, to experience a daily crucifixion of self." Every day you can yield yourselves fully to God and let His Spirit control your spirit. "There is need of a decided, daily conversion to God." "When Christ shall come, our vile bodies are to be changed, and made like His glorious body, but the vile character will not be made holy then. The transformation of character must take place before His coming. Our natures must be pure and holy; we must have the mind of Christ, that He may behold with pleasure His image reflected upon our souls." "Work while the day lasts, for the night cometh when no man can work. The mandate will go forth: He that is holy, let him be holy still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. The destiny of all will be decided. A few, yes, only a few, of the vast number who people the earth will be saved unto life eternal, while the masses who have not perfected their souls in obeying the truth will be appointed to the second death." "When Christ comes, He takes those who have purified their souls by obeying the truth. . . . This mortal shall put on immortality, and these corruptible bodies, subject to disease, will be changed from mortal to immortal. We shall then be gifted with a higher nature. The bodies of all who purify their souls by obeying the truth shall be glorified." "The same power that raised Christ from the dead will raise His church, and glorify it with Christ, as His bride. . . . The victory of the sleeping saints will be glorious on the morning of the resurrection. . . . The lifegiver will crown with immortality all who come forth from the grave." "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." All those who have died in faith through the years have been waiting in their graves, not having received the promise of the heavenly home and immortality, because God's plan was that all the righteous should receive the promise of immortality and heaven at the same time. "For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." "The living righteous are changed 'in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.' At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air." "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless." |