THIRD QUARTER 2026
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #5
AUGUST 1, 2026
"ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD".

 

We are at an annual convention where Adventist lay members meet to be encouraged and strengthened in ministry. Someone stopped by the 1888 Message Study Committee booth yesterday and asked me a penetrating question. They wanted to know what the practical benefit of the message is today. We talked a bit about some of the main points of the message, with which they seemed mostly familiar. I encouraged them to read and explore more, especially the history of the message, noting Ellen White’s endorsement and her experience of being sidelined in the aftermath of Minneapolis and to some extent until today.

But the conversation and the context of this conference where the call is to “hasten the day, prepare the way,” brought the Sabbath School lesson home in a more convicting way. What are the current barriers to the gospel doing its work in my life and in sharing it with the world?

It is one thing to contemplate the message of Paul to the Corinthians at a distance, where the idolatry, demon worship, sexual deviation, and other pagan issues were impacting the members there. It is another to bring it home personally. Ultimately, the message to Laodicea is a call to forsake the remnants of idolatry, of self worship, in order to remove the stumbling blocks to others, so that we ourselves will not be the barrier to the gospel going to the world..

Ellen White quite open in her communication to her own family. She wrote this to her son Willie from Elmshaven in February of 1904:

Those who cherish and flatter self, fostering pride and vanity, giving to dress and appearance the time and attention that ought to be given to the Master’s work, are incurring a fearful loss. Many who are clothed in beautiful outward garments know nothing of the inward adorning that is in the sight of God of great price. Their fine clothing covers a heart that is sinful and diseased, full of vanity and pride. They know not what it means to “seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” [Colossians 3:1.]

I long to be filled day by day with the Spirit of Christ. The treasure of His grace is of more value to me than gold or silver or costly array. When my sisters catch a glimpse of what Christ has suffered in their behalf, that they might become children of God by adoption, they will no longer be satisfied with worldly pride and self-love. No longer will they worship self. God will be the object of their supreme regard.

My heart aches as I am shown how many there are who make self their idol. Christ has paid the redemption price for them. To Him belongs the service of all their powers. But their hearts are filled with self-love and the desire for self-adorning. They give no thought to the words, “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” [Mark 8:34.] Self-gratification is hiding Christ from their view. They have no desire to walk before God in meekness and lowliness. They are not looking to Jesus. They are not praying that they may be changed into His likeness. Their cases are represented by the man who came to the king’s banquet clothed in his common citizen-dress. He had refused to make the preparation required by the king. The garment provided for him at great cost he disdained to wear. To the king’s demand, “How camest thou in thither not having on a wedding garment?” he could answer nothing. [Matthew 22:12.] He was speechless; for he was self-condemned.

Many who profess to be Christians are such only in name. They are not converted. They keep self prominent. They do not sit at the feet of Jesus, as Mary did, to learn of Him. They are not ready for Christ’s coming.

The question that comes to me daily is just that. Am I converted? Is there any remnant of self blocking the blessings of Heaven from me personally and from my ministry? She continues:

In the night season I was in a company of people whose hearts were filled with vanity and conceit. Christ was hid from their eyes. Suddenly, in loud, clear accents, the words were heard, “Jesus is coming to take to Himself those who on this earth have loved and served Him, to be with Him in His kingdom forever.” Many of those in the company went forth in their costly apparel to meet Him. They kept looking at their dress. But when they saw His glory, and realized that their estimation of one another had been so largely measured by outward appearance, they knew that they were without the robe of Christ’s righteousness, and that the blood of souls was on their garments.

When Christ took His chosen ones, they were left; for they were not ready. In their lives self had been given the first place, and when the Saviour came, they were not prepared to meet Him.

I awoke with the picture of their agonized countenances stamped on my mind. I cannot efface the impression. I wish I could describe the scene as it was presented to me. Oh, how sad was the disappointment of those who had not learned by experience the meaning of the words, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” [Colossians 3:3.]

There are many professing Christians who know not Christ by an experimental knowledge. O how my heart aches for these poor, deceived, unprepared souls. As I stand before congregations, and see the self-sufficient, self-righteous ones, and know that they are not preparing themselves to do acceptable work for Christ, and to meet Him in peace, I am so burdened that I cannot sleep. I ask myself, What can I say to these souls that will arouse them to a sense of their true condition? Self is the all-absorbing theme of their life. I long to reveal Christ so plainly that they will behold Him and cease to center their attention on self.

Those who are connected with our institutions need the sanctifying grace of Christ. This they must have in order to reveal His meekness and lowliness. He is the example of what God expects all Christians to be. 

Among those to whom bitter disappointment will come at the day of final reckoning will be some who have been outwardly religious and who apparently have lived Christian lives. But self is woven into all they do. They pride themselves on their morality, their influence, their ability to stand in a higher position than others, [and] their knowledge of the truth, for they think that these will win for them the commendation of Christ. “Lord,” they plead, “we have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets.” [Luke 13:26.] “Have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works?” [Matthew 7:22.] 

But Christ says, “I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me.” [Luke 13:27.] “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” [Matthew 7:21.]

There is no discussion; the time for that is past. The irrevocable sentence has been pronounced. They are shut out from heaven by their own unfitness for its companionship.

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built a house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” [Verses 24-27.] —Ellen White, Letters and Manuscripts, Vol. 19 (Letter 91, 1904).

The questions raised in her 1891 Review article are even more pointed:

Those who are sanctified through the truth, should with pen and voice testify what is truth, what Christ is to them. There are many branches of the work. Home missionaries and foreign missionaries are needed, and there cannot be too large a number. Everything we do should be done with reference to the salvation of souls, the glory of God.

There should be no extravagance, in building fine homes, in buying costly furniture, in indulging in worldly dress, or in providing luxurious food; but in everything let us think of the souls for whom Christ has died. Let selfishness and pride die. Let none continue to expend means to multiply pictures to be sent to their friends. Let us save every dollar that can be saved, that the matchless charms of Christ may be presented before the souls of the perishing. Satan will suggest many ways in which you may expend money. But it is spent for self-gratification,—for unnecessary things, no matter how trifling their cost,—it is not spent for the glory of God. Let us look well to this matter, and see if we are denying ourselves as we should. Are we making sacrifices, that we may send the light of truth to the lost?

How do we employ our time, fraught with eternal interests? What are we doing through personal efforts to let our light shine? We shall have to face these questions in the judgment. Have we been faithful stewards of the grace of God? Can the Lord say to us, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant?” How many have been converted through our instrumentality?

To what degree have you taxed your resources to answer the claims of God upon you? There should be but one interest in the church; one desire should control all, and that is the desire to conform to the image of Christ. Each one should strive to do for Jesus all that it is possible for him to do, by personal effort, by gifts, by sacrifices. There should be meat in the house of the Lord, and that means a full treasury, that responses may be made to Macedonian cries coming from every land. How pitiful it is that we are obliged to say to these who cry for help, “We cannot send you men or money. We have an empty treasury.” Let all the pennies, dimes, and dollars that are lost to the cause through selfish love of pleasure, through desire to meet the world’s standard, through love of ease, be turned into the channel that flows to God’s treasury. It is the rills flowing into one that finally make the river. Let us be conscientious Christians, be laborers together with God. 

Why is it that there is so little genuine love for Christ in the church?—It is because the love of self has taken the place of love for Him who died on Calvary’s cross for the sins of the world. Let us be of one heart, of one mind, and let us draw near to God, that he may draw near to us, and fill us with his intense love for perishing souls. Let every heart beat in unison, in interest for the cause of Christ. New fields of work must be opened, souls are to be added to the faith, new names will appear on the church records,—names that will appear in the immortal records in heaven. O that we might realize what might be done with the money expended for the gratification of self!

 

Christ declared that the Holy Spirit should not speak of himself, but that “he shall testify of me.” The Holy Spirit was to glorify the Redeemer of the world, who came to demonstrate the love of the Father by a life of suffering and humiliation, and by a death of shame. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ by manifesting in the members of the church the self-denial, the self-sacrifice, the devotion of those who truly follow the great Exemplar. They shed a heavenly influence, and reveal in their characters the loveliness of Christ, working in harmony with the Holy Spirit. They can be silent concerning their own finite selves, but can extol the greatness of Christ, wakening an interest in others by the revealing of his marvelous love. They are able to show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light.

O, let the tongue be silent concerning the pictures of self! let there be shame that the money expended in this way has not gone into the treasury to reproduce the likeness of Christ, to set forth his matchless charms. Jesus alone should engage the attention. Those who have attracted attention to self should change this course of action, and turn the minds of men to Him who is deserving of the whole heart’s love. They should see the sinfulness of aiding the enemy of God and man by placing objects before the mind to divert the attention from Christ and heaven.

This work of selfishness grieves the Holy Spirit of God. Did not Christ have travail of soul that the redemption of a lost world might be made sure? Then shall not the followers of Christ, those whom he has left as his representatives, be moved with soul anguish, and travail in spirit that souls may be brought to Christ? “We are laborers together with God.” Christ worked unceasingly for the souls of men, and why are the members of the church standing all the day idle? Go, work in the Master’s vineyard. Repent with tears and humiliation that you have wasted so much time upon unimportant matters when souls were perishing. 

As stewards of God’s grace, have you not a personal interest in the work of saving your fellow-men? Shall Christ have died in vain for them because he does not have the co-operation of his professed followers? God requires that you shall be filled with the Holy Spirit. The work of Christ is sacred, and the command is, “Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.” He requires perfection of character in his agents. The influence of his church must all tend toward the building up of his cause in the earth.

Each member must co-operate with the Holy Spirit in his office work. Let no one feel that he must engage in a warfare at his own charges. To neglect a single means which God has provided, is to exclude the rays of light that should shine forth to the world, and to rob the souls for whom Christ died, of the light of life. Human effort must be combined with divine power. 

Stumbling-blocks are placed before those who are looking for light, because the professed followers of Christ are devoid of the power of the Holy Spirit.

The professed people of God do not study the life of Christ as they should. Satan has filled their minds with interest in things of minor importance, and the eternal realities are set aside. It is this that makes so great a dearth of laborers; this is why the sowers and reapers are so few. The fields already white unto the harvest, call for workers from every walk in life. There is so much, O, so much undone that should be done for the benefit of humanity! The widows, the fatherless, the poor, the helpless, are all around us; and we can expend money in selfish thoughtlessness when so much needs to be done? Christ will give us grace to do the work next to us; he will help us to use our time with wisdom, to give our means to unselfish projects. But he declares, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” The absence of the heart-felt religion, the love that purifies the soul, places the professed followers of Christ with his enemies.

When Christ gave his final commission to his disciples, he said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” This commission is for us; then let us work in the Spirit of Christ for our fellow-men. In great cities and smaller cities, in highways and by-ways, let us go forth to hold up Jesus as the one able to cleanse from sin. Every member of the church may be a working member, if he can do no more than say, “Come.” For the word declares, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” —Ellen G. White, "Co-operation With Christ", The Review and Herald, January 27, 1891.

Perhaps we are not tempted to eat food offered to idols. But where are we spending the time, money, and resources God has placed in our hands? The call is to surrender all. Anything I am placing before Christ in my life is a stumbling block to the glory of God being revealed to others. May God help us to remove every impediment to the Holy Spirit, to the Latter Rain message and experience.

 

—Todd Guthrie