God Judges Those Who Are Not on Guard against Sin ㅡ
“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.”
(Isaiah 58:1)
The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God.
The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hands: “Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.
Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” (Ezekiel 9:5, 6).
Here we see that the church—the Lord’s sanctuary—was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God.
The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust.
They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God’s power as in former days.
Times have changed.
These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil.
He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment.
Thus “Peace and safety”(1 Thessalonians 5:3) is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God’s people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.
These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God.
Men, maidens, and little children all perish together.
The great Searcher of hearts knoweth every sin committed in secret by the workers of iniquity.
Their wicked course He will tolerate no longer, and in His wrath He deals with them without mercy.
(Testimonies for the Church Volume 5 211, 212)
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