HE WILL DELIVER THE NEEDY

“For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.” Ps. 72:12.

There are multitudes to-day as truly under the power of evil spirits as was the demoniac of Capernaum. All who willfully depart from God’s commandments are placing themselves under the control of Satan. Many a man tampers with evil, thinking that he can break away at pleasure; but he is lured on and on, until he finds himself controlled by a will stronger than his own. He cannot escape its mysterious power. Secret sin or master passion may hold him a captive as helpless as was the demoniac of Capernaum.

Yet his condition is not hopeless. God does not control our minds without our consent; but every man is free to choose what power he will have to rule over him. None have fallen so low, none are so vile, but that they may find deliverance in Christ….No cry from a soul in need, though it fail of utterance in words, will be unheeded. Those who consent to enter into covenant with God are not left to the power of Satan or to the infirmity of their own nature.

While helping the poor in temporal things, keep always in view their spiritual needs let your own life testing to the Savior’s keeping power...The Lord’s care is over all his creatures. He loves them all, and makes no difference, except that He has the most tender pity for those who are called to bear life’s heaviest burdens. God’s children must meet trials and difficulties. But they should accept their lot with  a cheerful spirit, remembering that for all that the world neglects to bestow, God Himself will make up to them in the best of favors.

REDEMPTION FROM THE GRAVE

“But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave for he shall receive me." Ps. 49:15.

Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightening, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then raising His hands to heaven He cries, “Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!” Throughout the length and breath of the earth, the dead shall hear that voice; and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison-house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is the victory?” and the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voices in a long, glad shout of victory.

All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng, is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the Son of God. He presents a marked contrast to the people of later generations; in this one respect is shown the great degeneracy of the race. But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth….The mortal, corruptible form, devoid of comeliness, once polluted with sin, becomes perfect, beautiful, and immortal.

There will be a re-linking of the family chain. When we look upon our dead, we may think of the morning when the trump of God shall sound, when “the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” A little longer, and we shall see the King in His beauty.

ZION SHALL BE REDEEMED

“Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness.” Isa. 1:27.

We may have a vision of the future, the blessedness of heaven. In the Bible are revealed visions of future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, and these are dear to His church By faith we may stand on the threshold of the eternal city, an hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life co-operate with Christ, regarding it as an honor to suffer for His sake….There the redeemed greet those who led them to the Savior, and all unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. Tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the ransomed ones take up the joyful strain. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror

Whenever one renounces sin, which is the transgression of the law, his life will be brought into conformity to the law, into perfect obedience. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The light of the Word carefully studied, the voice of conscience, the strivings of the Spirit, produce in the heart genuine love for Christ, who gave Himself a whole sacrifice to redeem the whole person, body, soul and spirit. And love is manifested in obedience….

Faithful Christian men and women should have an intense interest to bring the convicted soul to a correct knowledge of righteousness in Christ Jesus….They must not neglect the faithful, tender, loving instruction so essential to the young converts that there may be no half-hearted work. The very first experience should be right.

WITH HIM IS PLENTEOUS REDEMPTION

“Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.” Ps. 130:7.

Up to the time of man’s rebellion against the government of God, there had been free communion between God and man. But the sin of Adam and Eve separated earth from heaven, so that man could not have communion with his Maker. Yet the world was not left in solitary hopelessness….Had He not with His own merits bridged the gulf that sin had made, the ministering angels could have held no communion with fallen man. Christ connects man in his weakness and helplessness with the source of infinite power.

In patriarchal times the sacrificial offerings connected with divine worship constituted a perpetual reminder of the coming of a Saviour; and thus it was with the entire ritual of the sanctuary services throughout Israel’s history. In the ministration of the tabernacle, and of the temple that afterward took its place, the people were taught each day, by means of types and shadows, the great truths relative to the advent of Christ as Redeemer, Priest, and King; and once each year their minds were carried forward to the closing events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, the final purification of the universe from sin and sinners.

The Messiah was to be hid in God, and God was to be revealed in the character of His son. Without knowledge of God, humanity would be eternally lost. Without divine help, men and women would sink lower and lower. Life and power must be imparted by Him who made the world. Man’s necessities could be met in no other way.

HE DRAWS ALL MEN BY HIS DEATH

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” John 12:32.

The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the world into God’s favour. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode the obedient. For six thousand years, Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now Go’s original purpose in its creation is accomplished. “The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.”

The true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul. In the beginning, God created man in His own likeness. He endowed him with noble qualities. His mind was well balanced, and all the powers of his being were harmonious. But the fall and its effects have perverted these gifts….To bring him back to the perfection in which he was first created, is the great object of life, - the object that underlies every other. It is the work of parents and teachers, in the education of the youth, to co-operate with the divine purpose; and in so doing they are “labourers together with God.”

The theme of redemption will bear the most concentrated study, and its depths will never be fully explored. Do not far that you will exhaust the wonderful theme. Go to the fountain for yourself, that you may be filled with refreshment. Drink deep at the well of salvation, that Jesus may be in you well of water, springing p unto everlasting life.

HE WILL REDEEM US

“I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments.” Ex. 6:6.

The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God. From the first initiation of hope in the sentence pronounced in Eden to that last glorious promise of the Revelation, "They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads,” the burden of every book and every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme, - man’s uplifting, - the power of God, “which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He who grasps this thought has before him an infinite field for study. He has the key that will unlock to him the whole treasure-house of God’s Word.

The science of redemption is the science of all sciences; the science that is the study of the angels and of all the intelligences of the unfallen worlds; the science that engages the attention of our Lord and Saviour; the science that enters into the purpose brooded in the mind of the infinite, - “kept in silence tough times eternal;” the science that will be the study of God’s redeemed throughout endless ages. This is the highest study in which it is possible for man to engage. As no other study can, it will quicken the mind and uplift the soul.

It was He who created the human soul, with its capacity for knowing and for loving. And He  is not in Himself such as to leave the demands of the soul unsatisfied….We need to clasp a hand that is warm, to trust in a heart full of tenderness. And even so God has in his Word revealed himself.