By John Thiel, mp3

We are called to give glory to God. The angel that has the everlasting gospel to preach to all the earth is recorded as saying;

Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Revelation 14:7

How are we to give Him the glory and what is meant with the glory that we are to give Him? There is a hint in Revelation 14:7 as to what this glory might be, because it says give glory to him; for the hour of his judgement is come. Here there is a very clear indication of what the glory is that we are to give Him. We are to give God the glory, because the hour of His judgement is come.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin [is] ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done [this] evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, [and] be clear when thou judgest. Psalm 51:1-4

After this terrible sin that King David committed, we read this. The sinner here is expressing to the Father, the need of His mercy and he is acknowledging and expressing his confession to tell God that he had sinned against God, so that by telling Him this, that he has done this evil in His sight, God might be justified when He speaks and that God might be cleared when He judges. During the judgement of God’s people, God can be just and God can be cleared of any smudge of falsehood. God in the time of the judgement is indeed being judged, whether He is just or not. The apostle Paul qualifies this statement:

For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged Romans 3:3-4

Here he quotes Psalm 51; when God is judged, He might be cleared. The hour of God’s judgment is come, He is being judged before the universe as to how He judges us. This judgment is the judgment that commences with God’s house. This is the judgment during which God’s people are to give Him the glory and it is the judgment that the angel of Revelation 14:6-7 is pointing at.

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment [was] white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne [was like] the fiery flame, [and] his wheels [as] burning fire.

A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, [one] like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Daniel 7:9-10,13

There is our great High Priest. The judgment is set. Here is a time in earth’s history which we know commenced in 1844 and the announcement of the first angel pointed to it. That there was a judgment that God is going to be cleared. What is He to be cleared of? Ever since the fall of Lucifer, a suggestion plagued the universe. How did Lucifer manage to put a slur upon God when he fell? Here is a precious call for you and me in understanding how to give God the glory.

In the opening of the great controversy, Satan had declared that the law of God could not be obeyed, that justice was inconsistent with mercy, and that, should the law be broken, it would be impossible for the sinner to be pardoned. Every sin must meet its punishment, urged Satan; and if God should remit the punishment of sin, He would not be a God of truth and justice. When men broke the law of God, and defied His will, Satan exulted. It was proved, he declared, that the law could not be obeyed; man could not be forgiven. Because he, after his rebellion, had been banished from heaven, Satan claimed that the human race must be forever shut out from God’s favor. God could not be just, he urged, and yet show mercy to the sinner. {DA 761.4}

The slur upon God’s character was:

1    That God was an arbitrary God, His law was unjust, it could not be kept.

2    If He would forgive the breaking of the law, He would not be a just God.

When man fell, Satan said that it was impossible to keep the law. Adam and Eve failed and so will everybody else as much as Satan because God is not a fair God. The universe was put on edge with this suggestion. God could not be just, he urged, and yet show mercy to the sinner.
It would not be justice. He claimed that he had God in a corner. Here in the judgment of God’s people, the record was to be set straight for eternity.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

To declare, [I say], at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans 3:23-26

There is something beautiful announced in the everlasting gospel, that through the everlasting gospel God could be just and yet justify the sinner. There in the everlasting gospel was an ingredient that would declare to Satan and the universe that God is able to be a pardoning God, that He can be just and yet forgive and that His law can be kept. This is what the everlasting gospel was to provide. It was this that had to be worked patiently through before the universe. That’s the reason why Satan was not immediately destroyed.

The Work Done At The Cross

At the cross of Jesus the Father succeeded to prove this point. Jesus who became a human being like you and me glorified the Father. Satan with his evil slur upon the character of God had to be unveiled.

Could one sin have been found in Christ, had He in one particular yielded to Satan to escape the terrible torture, the enemy of God and man would have triumphed. Christ bowed His head and died, but He held fast His faith and His submission to God. “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” Revelation 12:10.

Satan saw that his disguise was torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had revealed himself as a murderer. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth his work was restricted. Whatever attitude he might assume, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken. {DA 761.1-2}

Satan’s slur was that God’s law could not be obeyed; under severe pressure people would break it. If Jesus the man would have sinned one sin then Satan would have triumphed in his argument. When Jesus was there He proved the point that Satan’s argument was incorrect, and He glorified God.

At the beginning of the controversy there were question marks but now at the cross Jesus wiped those question marks out. He glorified God as a human being. Satan was unveiled and his false accusation was beautifully erased. However, there was something still left to clarify.

The Controversy after The Cross

Yet Satan was not then destroyed. The angels did not even then understand all that was involved in the great controversy. The principles at stake were to be more fully revealed. And for the sake of man, Satan’s existence must be continued. Man as well as angels must see the contrast between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness. He must choose whom he will serve. {DA 761.3}

Even the angels still needed to have something clarified and man must be the agency as was Jesus (the man Christ Jesus), to clean up the rest of the slur. This is a profound subject to contemplate, and that is what the first angel’s message was trying to illuminate before the mind of the people of this time. Consider very carefully as we continue the actual drama, the controversy that continued even after the cross.

But even as a sinner, man was in a different position from that of Satan. Lucifer in heaven had sinned in the light of God’s glory. To him as to no other created being was given a revelation of God’s love. Understanding the character of God, knowing His goodness, Satan chose to follow his own selfish, independent will. This choice was final. There was no more that God could do to save him. But man was deceived; his mind was darkened by Satan’s sophistry. The height and depth of the love of God he did not know. For him there was hope in a knowledge of God’s love. By beholding His character he might be drawn back to God. {DA 761.5}

Through Jesus, God’s mercy was manifested to men; but mercy does not set aside justice. The law reveals the attributes of God’s character, and not a jot or tittle of it could be changed to meet man in his fallen condition. God did not change His law, but He sacrificed Himself, in Christ, for man’s redemption. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2 Corinthians 5:19. {DA 762.1}

The law requires righteousness,–a righteous life, a perfect character; and this man has not to give. He cannot meet the claims of God’s holy law. But Christ, coming to the earth as man, lived a holy life, and developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free gift to all who will receive them. His life stands for the life of men. Thus they have remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. More than this, Christ imbues men with the attributes of God. He builds up the human character after the similitude of the divine character, a goodly fabric of spiritual strength and beauty. Thus the very righteousness of the law is fulfilled in the believer in Christ. God can “be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Romans 3:26. {DA 762.2}

God’s love has been expressed in His justice no less than in His mercy. Justice is the foundation of His throne, and the fruit of His love. It had been Satan’s purpose to divorce mercy from truth and justice. He sought to prove that the righteousness of God’s law is an enemy to peace. But Christ shows that in God’s plan they are indissolubly joined together; the one cannot exist without the other. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Psalm 85:10. {DA 762.3}

By His life and His death, Christ proved that God’s justice did not destroy His mercy, but that sin could be forgiven, and that the law is righteous, and can be perfectly obeyed. Satan’s charges were refuted. God had given man unmistakable evidence of His love. {DA 762.4}

Another deception was now to be brought forward. Satan declared that mercy destroyed justice, that the death of Christ abrogated the Father’s law. Had it been possible for the law to be changed or abrogated, then Christ need not have died. But to abrogate the law would be to immortalize transgression, and place the world under Satan’s control. It was because the law was changeless, because man could be saved only through obedience to its precepts, that Jesus was lifted up on the cross. Yet the very means by which Christ established the law Satan represented as destroying it. Here will come the last conflict of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. {DA 762.5}

God came in the person of Jesus Christ to reveal that His law was absolute righteous and it could not be abrogated in any way to redeem or save man. Jesus, the man, lived a perfect obedient life and developed a perfect character. That is argument number one that Lucifer couldn’t clear any more. Then it comes to us, because our sins were remitted because of His righteousness, they can be forgiven. However, “More than this, Christ imbues men with the attributes of God.”

Jesus provided a perfect character in the place of man’s imperfect character and thereby man could be completely forgiven, as Jesus gave His life. However, that was not all of the argument that Lucifer laid against God. Man who has sinned cannot recover. He may be forgiven, but he can’t recover. Through the everlasting gospel, what happens to the heart of man? The attributes of God’s character are given, a godly fabric, a spiritual strength, so that the very righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in the believer in Christ. Through Jesus, God took man’s sin and destroyed it but He did more than that, He touched the heart of man. As He touches our heart through the everlasting gospel, He instils into us a hatred for sin and a love for God that produces a righteous life. Thereby God’s love and His justice and His mercy blend. He is looking for people who worship Him in Spirit and in truth. We can’t worship Him correctly if we are not really taking it in.

Satan claimed that justice must be manifested and that you can’t have mercy when justice is required. The cross demonstrated forgiveness for the sinner but the sinner will not be able to keep the law, hence he can’t justly be declared righteous. This puzzle has to be solved. Justification and righteousness in sanctification are joined together indissolubly. Today in modern Christendom justification and sanctification are separated, but that is Satan talking. You can’t have justification separate from sanctification; Satan wanted to make that split. A sanctified life is a result of God’s mercy and love; a righteous life.

The slur upon God’s character was that the law was an arbitrary thing that could not be perfectly kept. When man sinned, Satan claimed that he had God in a corner. Then came Jesus and Lucifer saw that he was unveiled, but said that those people that Jesus came to save will still not be able to keep His law; that is the last part of the slur. They might be forgiven but they can’t keep the law, they can’t live up to that high standard no matter how many times they are forgiven. There is the last ingredient that has to be totally clarified in the judgment. You and I are called into the drama, whether the everlasting gospel can affect your heart and my heart so that we can prove to Satan that he is wrong in his judgment against God.

The law requires righteousness,–a righteous life, a perfect character; {DA 762.2}

That is what the law requires. Although I might be forgiven, although I might have Christ’s righteousness applied to me in justification, however, there is something more to be done.

More than this, Christ imbues men with the attributes of God. {DA 762.2}

Now under the attributes of God that are imparted through the gospel, a perfect life can be produced.

The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been,–just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents,–perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperiled. The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized. {SC 62.1}

It was possible for Adam, before the fall, to form a righteous character by obedience to God’s law. But he failed to do this, and because of his sin our natures are fallen and we cannot make ourselves righteous. Since we are sinful, unholy, we cannot perfectly obey the holy law. We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. He lived on earth amid trials and temptations such as we have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now He offers to take our sins and give us His righteousness. If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned. {SC 62.2}

More than this, Christ changes the heart. He abides in your heart by faith. You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him; and so long as you do this, He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. So you may say, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. So Jesus said to His disciples, “It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” Matthew 10:20. Then with Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works –works of righteousness, obedience. {SC 62.3}

Here you can see the indissoluble unit of justification and sanctification that Lucifer said is an impossibility. The condition of eternal life is perfect obedience to the law of God. We are in more acceptable situation than Lucifer was because he understood the goodness of God and saw the glory of God, but he still sinned against Him. Here are a people whom he has tricked and confused. Now they are fallen and now in their fallen natures they cannot keep the law. Since we are sinful and unholy we cannot perfectly obey the law. We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. This is where Satan points. Are we beginning to realise what it means and how you are to give glory to God?

Satan thought he had God in a corner and in the eyes of the universe the controversy was blurry. Was Satan right? Satan was disarmed at the cross, but there was still a question that had to be resolved; you and me who believe in Him. The call is to the people living now, give God the glory.

You are to maintain this connection with Christ. SC 62.3

With that wonderful gift He has given you, as your heart is touched with the mercy of His forgiving love that He, God, came down and touched you in your miserable experience. As your heart is touched with that, as it brings tears to your heart, to your eyes, as this is so, what are you to maintain? You are to maintain that experience close to your heart.

Our Part In Giving Glory To God

As you maintain it, what will happen to you? Your constant surrender of your will to Him will take place. As long as you do this He will work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. This is the method by which:

Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works –works of righteousness, obedience. SC 62.3

How clear do we want it? It is in this way that we are to give glory to God in the judgment. When the judgment takes place, the books are opened. What are the books to show? That we have sinned, and that we have trusted in Jesus that He will forgive us our sins. If there are any sins that are not confessed and corrected in our life, that’s the problem. The call is to give God the glory so that all your sins that you do can by the beautiful focus on Jesus and His great love, change the record of your faulty life and bring you into perfect obedience to all of God’s commandments. That will be written in the books. In that way will God be glorified. Sin weakened as we are, we stand there before the judgment seat and what is happening to you and to me at this time? We are to have an experience in the three angel’s messages. This is the most important experience of the three angels’ messages.

The books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity. God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing. By His law He measures the character of every man. As the artist transfers to the canvas the features of the face, so the features of each individual character are transferred to the books of heaven. God has a perfect photograph of every man’s character, and this photograph He compares with His law. He reveals to man the defects that mar his life, and calls upon him to repent and turn from sin (ST July 31, 1901). {5BC 1085.4}

This is the work, this is now the issue, that we are going to disprove to Satan his claims against God. God is revealing to us His wonderful love, and at the same time He reveals to us His broken law in our character. He is showing us the things that mar our life.

The Lord requires perfection from His redeemed family. He calls for perfection in character-building. Fathers and mothers especially need to understand the best methods of training children, that they may cooperate with God. Men and women, children and youth, are measured in the scales of heaven in accordance with that which they reveal in their home life. A Christian in the home is a Christian everywhere. Religion brought into the home exerts an influence that cannot be measured (MS 34, 1899). {5BC 1085.5}

We are being measured in the heavenly courts. Our character is being transferred in the books of heaven. What are we like in the home, how are we training our children in the home, etc? These realities stand before us as we weak human beings are standing before the throne of grace in this judgment hour. Can you see the urgency of the message?

We have a commitment to pursue here that the angel is saying, “Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come.” Here is our opportunity to do what Jesus did, to clean the record for eternity that God had some slur of character in dealing with our sinfulness? No. Follow very carefully the commitment that you and I are able to respond to. By beholding this beautiful love of Jesus, the everlasting gospel, we are actually permitting this to pervade my every daily interaction, as I am struck by my weaknesses and failings of character as God reveals them to me. How did He reveal them to us? This is a living engagement, not just announcements of doctrine. Your and my eternal life is at stake and it is also God’s character that is at stake. It has to be proved to Satan that he is wrong.

Provision has been made whereby every soul that is struggling under sinful practices may be made free from sin. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Christian is not to retain his sinful habits and cherish his defects of character, but he is to be renewed in the spirit of his mind after the divine similitude. Whatever may be the nature of your defects, the Spirit of the Lord will enable you to discern them, and grace will be given you whereby they may be overcome. Through the merits of the blood of Christ you may be a conqueror–yes, more than a conqueror. . . . {TMK 237.2}

Ask the Lord to reveal to you yourself; place your life under His searching eye, and when He lays hold upon your case you will see that you have made grievous mistakes, and what you supposed was of little importance was offensive in the sight of Heaven. {TMK 237.3}

You thought that wasn’t so important, that wasn’t so essential, I still love my Lord, I still love Him, that little bit isn’t a problem.

You will see that there is a decided need of thorough transformation of character. You will realise that you must put away the evil of your doings, and cooperate with God and heavenly angels who are sent to minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation. .

Self must die. Every practice, every habit, that has a harmful tendency, however innocent it may be regarded by the world, must be battled with until overcome, that the human agent may perfect a character after the divine Pattern. . . {TMK 237.3-4}

Here you see the activity of it. Through the application of the love of Jesus in the beautiful gift of what He has done to pardon you, He is now working on your heart and mine and revealing to you the sins that mar your life. He says to you, you didn’t realise that was a sin, you thought you loved me, but look what you did there. This is not just what you did, this is your character. This is marring your life.

As you keep reaching out to His wonderful mercy and love, He doesn’t condemn you. He shows you that you may be a conqueror through the beautiful application of the love of the shed blood of Jesus, so that self and any practice will be conquered through this.

If we have defects of character of which we are not aware, He gives us discipline that will bring those defects to our knowledge, that we may overcome them. It is His providence that brings us into varying circumstances. In each new position, we meet a different class of temptations. How many times when we are placed in some trying situation we think, “This is a wonderful mistake. How I wish I had stayed where I was before.” . . {TMK 282.2}

The Lord is revealing to us things that are very unsavoury and unpleasant to us. As He does this He is showing us what our problem is.

But why is it that you are not satisfied? It is because your circumstances have served to bring new defects in your character to your notice, but nothing is revealed but that which was in you. It is coming in contact with difficulties that will give you spiritual muscle and sinew. You will become strong in Christ if you endure the testing process and the proving of God. . . . Remember when trials come that you are a spectacle to angels and to men, . {TMK 282.2-3}

They are watching to see whether Satan’s accusation against God was correct or not. Give God the glory. During this painful revelation, give God the glory. It is painful in the judgment when God reveals to me the defects that mar my life by circumstances and temptations that discover to me the disastrous character that I am. As I see this, it’s painful but as it’s painful, I see the painfulness of Jesus. I see Him suffering with me, and I see Him giving God the glory by conquering the sinfulness of my nature. As I see Him doing that I become enervated, I become motivated to say, right. I’m going to keep my eyes on Jesus and no matter what the Lord is showing me, no matter what a character defect I have, I am going to not give up, I am going to give God the glory. I’m not going to say, I’m never going to make it. That would give Satan the glory. That’s exactly what Satan wants us to say.

God has given us every ounce of power to conquer. If we want to conquer, we can because Jesus will place His righteousness before our eyes in the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

As I am unveiled to myself, there is a scripture in Joshua 7:19 in which Achan waited too late to be able to be saved by. If he would have done what he was told to do before it was too late, he would have been saved.

And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide [it] not from me. Joshua 7:19

This is how to give God the glory. In the time of judgment, the Lord is doing to you and me what He did to Achan, but Achan would not confess,as the lots cast came closer to him he would not confess, would not confess, but God is doing this to us and bringing it down closer and closer to the metal. If we will confess as He is convincing me, I am giving God the glory. Give Him the glory, confess as David did. David’s sin was more horrendous than Achan’s sin, but David went straight to the point after he was shown he was the man; he confessed.

give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; Joshua 7:19

As God reveals to us the things that mar our life, how are we going to succeed in giving God the glory? By confessing, yes Lord, that’s it. I didn’t only make a mistake here, I sinned; I am a (whatever the sin is). I’m an unsavoury character, I’m completely sinful. Lord, I confess it to you and I thank you that You have dealt with this in Jesus Christ.

As I gaze upon this beautiful sacrifice and it keeps on molding my inward parts, then that character is being changed in the books of heaven, because the photograph of my character is a living picture and as my character is changing, so is that picture up there. Satan has to stand back and the angels are watching. Have you heard of Joshua and the angel? This is exactly the picture. When the Psalmist said that he confessed and acknowledged his sins that God may be clear when thou judgest., we who are alive must clear His name. Only if we confess our sins can God achieve His mercy through Christ, then He can change us.

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

And a man’s foes [shall be] they of his own household.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:32-38

When we inter-relate with people around us we think, we should be alright to do this or that. In the family, those who want to confess Jesus will be in contrast and conflict with those that don’t. Jesus was showing His glory to the Father and to us, the glory of His love, and said that you, who believe in me, will be challenged Will you glorify Him? If you will follow the call of your relatives, what are you doing? When Jesus says to come with Him.

The crooked ways, the perverse doings of those around us, are not to dim the luster of our piety or to lead us to conform our habits to, and assimilate our customs and practices with, the world’s. {TMK 237.5}

If I am going to be loyal, if I am going to give God the glory, and the world is pulling me this way, what is involved? To give God the glory means not to conform my habits and customs in assimilating with my relatives. Will you give Jesus the glory? Confess Him, confess your sins, do the things that the judgment is identifying in your life. As you want to give God the glory, confess, submit.

Satan urges before God his accusations against them, declaring that they have by their sins forfeited the divine protection, and claiming the right to destroy them as transgressors. He pronounces them just as deserving as himself of exclusion from the favour of God. “Are these,” he says, “the people who are to take my place in heaven and the place of the angels who united with me? While they profess to obey the law of God, have they kept its precepts? Have they not been lovers of self more than of God? Have they not placed their own interests above His service? Have they not loved the things of the world? Look at the sins which have marked their lives. Behold their selfishness, their malice, their hatred toward one another.” {5T473.2}

Look at what they are doing, they are arguing with one another. This is what Satan did in heaven and he sees us doing the same thing, how can we go to heaven?

The people of God have been in many respects very faulty. Satan has an accurate knowledge of the sins which he has tempted them to commit, and he presents these in the most exaggerated light, declaring: “Will God banish me and my angels from His presence, and yet reward those who have been guilty of the same sins? Thou canst not do this, O Lord, in justice. Thy throne will not stand in righteousness and judgment. Justice demands that sentence be pronounced against them.” {5T 474.1}

But while the followers of Christ have sinned, they have not given themselves to the control of evil. They have put away their sins, and have sought the Lord in humility and contrition, and the divine Advocate pleads in their behalf. He who has been most abused by their ingratitude, who knows their sin, and also their repentance, declares: “‘The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.’ I gave My life for these souls. They are graven upon the palms of My hands.” {5T 474.2}

The assaults of Satan are strong, his delusions are terrible; but the Lord’s eye is upon His people. Their affliction is great, the flames of the furnace seem about to consume them; but Jesus will bring them forth as gold tried in the fire. Their earthliness must be removed that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected; unbelief must be overcome; faith, hope, and patience are to be developed. {5T 474.3}

Do you now know what it means to give God the glory? This is our present, most urgent engagement, and thus we are responding to our scripture reading.

Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.

Give unto the LORD the glory [due] unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. 1 Chronicles 16: 28-29

May God help us to be willing to confess, to submit, and to acknowledge so that He can finish His work quickly. Let Him reveal me to myself completely. Let Him give me a hard time, because the harder the time I get, the more I will flee to the mercy of God and the more will that mold and fashion me to hate sin and to put it away, and to live in perfect obedience to His will. May the Lord help us to understand this beautiful language “Give God the glory.”

Amen