Remnant-Online

AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP

The Master of the house cometh!

The world around us is full of danger. There is pestilence, famine, earthquakes, accidents, and murders of every sort. The signs of the times all disclose that the end is near. There is a time of trouble coming that will catch most by surprise including those who believe they will be "raptured". Such a surprise. "For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them." But to those who walk in the light of truth, it has been written, "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light." "Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping."

The hope of Christ's coming encouraged the early church. As long as this hope was cherished by the professed followers of Christ, they were a light to the world. This was not the design of Satan that they should be a light to the world; and because iniquity abounded, the love of many waxed cold, and the unfaithful servant is represented as saying, "My Lord delayeth his coming." As a result of this loss of faith in the appearing of Jesus, the unfaithful servant begins to smite his fellow-servant, and to eat and drink with the drunken. Satan was at work to cause apostasy in the early church; and in accomplishing his purpose, doctrines were introduced through which the church was leavened with unbelief in Christ and his coming. Thus he still works today.

God is arousing His people. Heresies have come in among us which are sifting the church and separating the chaff from the wheat. The Lord calls upon all who believe His word to awake out of sleep. Precious light has come, appropriate for this time. It is Bible truth, showing the perils that are right upon us. This light should lead us to a diligent study of the Scriptures, and a most critical examination of the positions which we hold.

God would have all of the positions of truth thoroughly and perseveringly searched, with prayer and fasting. Believers are not to rest in suppositions and ill-defined ideas of what constitutes truth. Their faith must be firmly founded upon the word of God, so that when the testing time shall come, and they are brought before councils to answer for their faith, they may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear.

Let us who claim to believe that the Lord is coming soon search our Bibles as never before; for Satan is determined to try every device possible to keep souls in darkness, and blind the mind to the perils ofthe times in which we are living. Let every believer take up his Bible with earnest prayer, that he may be enlightened by the holy Spirit as to what is truth, that he may know more of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Search for the truth as for hidden treasures, and disappoint the enemy. The time of test is just upon us, the loud cry of the third angel will begin with the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth. For it is the work of every one to whom the message of warning has come, to lift up Jesus, to present him to the world as revealed in types, as shadowed in symbols, as manifested in the revelations of the prophets, as unveiled in the lessons given to his disciples and in the wonderful miracles wrought for the sons of men. Search the Scriptures; for they are they that testify of him.