FIRST QUARTER 2023
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #4
APRIL 22, 2023
“FEAR GOD AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM”

 

“For it is the God Who commanded light to shine out of darkness, Who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6, NKJV here and throughout).

 

There is a very tall mountain near where we live. Mount Shasta is over 14,000 feet tall, 14,179 feet to be exact. It is an imposing, eye catching, and inspiring peak. People make over 15,000 attempts to climb to the summit every year, but only a third of these are successful.

I am inspired and awed by the mountain, but have never committed to climb to the summit. Why? you might ask. I’ll give you a clue. It has something to do with a particular law of nature - gravity. Just about every year a small percentage of the climbers have been injured, and last year an experienced mountain guide lost her life when one of her roped-in clients lost their footing in icy conditions, bringing the entire threesome falling at high speed over 1,000 feet of ice and snow.

I have nothing against those who climb. In fact, I admire their accomplishment. All four of my children have summited, some multiple times. I do of course send prayers for their safety! And they know how to prepare, and the precautions to take while climbing.

The point I would like to make is this:  It is best to know what you are attempting before you climb. The laws of gravity, friction, energy, physiology, among others, govern your attempt.

What does this have to do with our lesson?

In Isaiah 14 we read the record of Lucifer setting out to climb a particular mountain:

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [How] you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit” (Isaiah 14:12-16).

Lucifer seriously misjudged the nature of the mountain he was attempting to climb as well as the glory that exists at the top of the mountain. He misread the fundamental law of the universe, the one on which God’s glory rests, and the one which creates such awe and respect for Him from His creatures.

“Unselfishness, the principle of God's kingdom, is the principle that Satan hates; its very existence he denies. From the beginning of the great controversy, he has endeavored to prove God's principles of action to be selfish, and he deals in the same way with all who serve God. To disprove Satan's claim is the work of Christ and of all who bear His name.” — Ellen G. White, Education, p. 154.

Disproving Satan’s claim is the essence of “Fear God, and Give Glory to Him.” Jesus went to the “Pit” of the second death experience to show us that God is completely committed to the law of selflessness, to the point of death with the risk of the Universe on the line. He proved that death to self is life, and that living for self is eternal death. In Jesus’ humiliation was His exaltation. And we must not forget that He, as the representative of all humanity, became the mountain guide for us to ascend the mountain:

“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully” (Psalms 24:3,4).

“The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: ‘Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?’ He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, He who despises the gain of oppressions, Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, And shuts his eyes from seeing evil: He will dwell on high; His place of defense [will be] the fortress of rocks; Bread will be given him, His water [will be] sure” (Isaiah 33:14-16).

Looking to Jesus, seeing Him for who He is—the most humble, selfless Person who ever lived in human flesh—we become like Him. He dwells in us and walks in us, here and now, as we trust in His righteousness. Roped in with Him, we cannot fall.

The only way to really fear God and give Him glory is to have Christ in us, the hope of glory. In Him, we have no fear except the fear of self, the fear of sin which brings eternal death. He obeys the law in and through us, and we enjoy His faith, the Faith of Jesus. He is at the center of life, so of course it is God-centered.

Are you and I in awe of the humility of God? Of His faith? Are we willing to speak of it? All over the world?

“And the heavens will praise Your wonders, O LORD; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints. For who in the heavens can be compared to the LORD? [Who] among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the LORD? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, And to be held in reverence by all [those] around Him” (Psalms 89:5-7).

I would highly recommend a close reading of the entire 89th Psalm in this context. Here we find the gospel proclamation of Revelation 14 expanded and illuminated through and by the glory of God. We must participate in this proclamation!

 

~Todd Guthrie

 

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The whole aim of the Gospel is to teach men how the righteousness of that holy and perfect law may be fulfilled in men, - by Jesus Christ the righteous One. The judgment will reveal all the works of self, and blessed is that man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered in that day. Since it is the law of God that is to be the standard of judgment, it is not strange that Satan should seek to lead men to despise the law, and to continue in sin. Lawlessness is a special mark of the last days in prophecy. In the same last days, when the "hour of His judgment is come" (Revelation 14:6, 7), none need be surprised that the message of the Gospel is in a special sense a call to loyalty and obedience. Men face to face with the judgment cannot afford to treat with contempt the law which places all under sin. Now, when not only in the professedly godless world men are rushing on in sin, but when even in the pulpits and the religious world the law of God is being treated as an outward thing, the time has come that the Gospel calls in a "loud voice," "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come." —E. J. Waggoner, Present Truth UK, June 18, 1896, p. 386.

 

This commission is also given in the gospel by Mark. It was to go and preach the gospel, and this power would attend them in their work. That gospel is just the same as is spoken of in Isaiah 61, where Christ's work is prophesied of. Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”

 

You may say that this is figurative language. I think it is quite literal. This being in prison is quite a literal thing; and this opening of the prison to them that are bound, is literal language, too. Every single soul on the earth, has sinned, and come short of the glory of God; and the sentence of death was passed upon every single one. Then you and I live here under the sentence of death; that is, we are legally dead; death, the penalty for sin, staring us right in the face. We live all our lifetime in bondage through fear of death. We are simply shut up; sentence has been pronounced, and we are locked up, waiting the day of execution. Now somebody comes to us who are shut up in prison under sentence of death, and brings to us news of pardon in our case, and we are released from that sentence of death, and we become free men in Christ Jesus. Is not that literal? I tell you there are many of us here that can say we know that is a literal experience. Whereas we were in bondage, we are now free men.

 

It is the sacred privilege of the one who carries the gospel of Christ, to carry just as literally the word of pardon, of release from sentence of death, as though you or I were commissioned by the Governor to take the pardon and carry it to the man sentenced to be executed on the gallows. When we understand that that is the work God has committed to us, will it be hard work to stir up in anybody the missionary spirit? I have news of pardon to those who are in prison; I have good tidings of great joy to those who are in the deepest trouble; I must go and carry it to them. I do not wonder that the apostle Paul said: “I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; to the wise and the unwise:” “woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” God had given him a message to those who sat in darkness, that he should carry the light to them; he must go. That sounds first-rate, and yet there are hundreds of us that sit right here and do not do it.

 

The main thing is not the theory, but the fact; not to talk about it, but to do it. I say to everyone, God has given to you the privilege of carrying light to those who sit in darkness; to those who are in prison, words of pardon and release: go and carry them; that work is for everyone. When I feel that God has given me that privilege, I do not want to sit down and rock myself away to everlasting bliss, if it was possible to do it. There is work to do: there is a chance to carry this gospel of good news, the tidings of great joy, to all the world. Go and carry it; go; don't sit here; go and carry it. Everyone can do that; it is not necessary that we should have credentials from the Conference to do that. Everywhere we go, “living epistles known and read of all men.” And everywhere we go we carry the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. —W. W. Prescott, General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 24, 1891, p. 224.