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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4b
Exodus 33:16
. “For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy
people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with
us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that
are upon the face of the earth.”
How frequently ancient Israel rebelled, and how often were they
visited with judgments, and thousands slain because they would not
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heed the commands of God who had chosen them.
The Israel of God in these last days are in constant danger of
mingling with the world, and losing all signs of their being the chosen
people of God. Read again
Titus 2:13-15
. We are brought down to the
last days, when God is purifying unto himself a peculiar people. Shall
we provoke God as did ancient Israel? Shall we bring his wrath upon
us by departing from him and mingling with the world, and following
the abominations of the nations around us?
The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself, and this
consecration to God, and separation from the world, is plainly declared
and positively enjoined in both the Old and New Testaments. There is
a wall of separation which the Lord himself has established between
the things of the world and the things he has chosen out of the world,
and sanctified unto himself. The calling and character of God’s people
are peculiar. Their prospects are peculiar, and these peculiarities
distinguish them from all people. All of God’s people upon the earth
are one body, from the beginning to the end of time. They have one
Head that directs and governs the body. The same injunctions rest
upon God’s people now, to be separate from the world, as rested
upon ancient Israel. The great Head of the church has not changed.
The experience of Christians in these days is much like the travels of
ancient Israel. Please read
1 Corinthians 10
, especially from the
6th to
the 15th verse
.
“Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not
lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as
were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and
drink, and rose up to play.... Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of
them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye
as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they
are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world
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are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest