Guarding the Home
Let us turn to Revelation the 14th chapter. I love the book of Revelation, don‟t you? It is focused especially on this last generation. The first five verses of the 14th chapter of Revelation give us a picture of the 144,000, the special company that are developed by the threefold message of Revelation 14:6-12.
You notice in the first verse that they are seen standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb, having His name and His Father‟s name written in their foreheads. In other words, they reflect the image of Jesus fully. In verses two and three we hear them singing that wonderful song, that song that no man can learn but the 144,000, the song of their experience.
Now in the fourth verse we read:
“These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins” Revelation 14:4.
This, of course, is dealing with the symbols of the book of Revelation. In the 17th chapter of Revelation we have the fallen churches represented by a mother and her daughters who are impure. The 144,000 will be those who have become fully cleansed from all the errors, the false doctrines, and the wicked practices of the fallen churches. That is what that means:
“These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins” Revelation 14:4.
That is, they have a pure faith and a pure heart.
“These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth” Revelation 14:4.
They follow Him in the world to come. They go with Him through the universe. But those who follow Him there will first follow Him here.
“These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb” Revelation 14:4.
That expression, “first fruits,” as used in the Bible, refers not merely chronologically – to the time of ripening – it refers especially to the quality, the first fruits, that is the very best, the choicest. God is developing in this generation a group of people that will be exhibited to all the universe as the cream of the crop.
“And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” Revelation 14:5.
Wouldn‟t it be a wonderful thing to be a part of that company, friends? This is our destiny. For this we have been born. Oh, that we may not miss our destiny!
Now let‟s take another view. Matthew 5:8. Here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking of the blessings that various attributes bring, and here in Matthew 5:8, He speaks a blessing especially for whom? The pure in heart.
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8.
Any of us who wear glasses have had the experience, at times, of things looking a bit hazy, and we take the glasses off and we see that they have gotten pretty dirty. And isn‟t it interesting how a little time spent in cleansing the lenses improves the view? Yes. In order to see God our hearts must be pure. Dirty thinking fogs the vision. Impure thoughts make it impossible to appreciate, to even see the character of God.
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8.
The 144,000 will be absolutely pure in a world which has gone the limit in impurity. You remember in His sermon on the mount, Jesus likened the days just before His second coming to what time? The days of Noah. And that was a time distinguished by violence and impurity. Polygamy, adultery, iniquity of every kind walked brazen and bold. So it is becoming today. But in this wicked and impure generation, God is going to have men and women, boys and girls, who are as pure as Jesus.
Galatians 5:24. Notice what we must do in order to have this experience.
What do those who are Christ‟s do? What does this say? They crucify what? The flesh, with the what? Affections and lusts. The margin for “affections” says “passions.” Both are correct.
Turn, please, in your Adventist Home to page 127, and we will read a comment on this. Let‟s see what this flesh is, that is to be crucified.
“They that are Christ‟s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” Galatians 5:24.
Are there some affections that need to be crucified? Apparently. Some passions, some lusts.
“The lower passions have their seat in the body and work through it. The words „flesh‟ or „fleshly‟ or „carnal lusts‟ embrace the lower, corrupt nature; the flesh of itself cannot act contrary to the will of God” Adventist Home, page 127.
Notice that: The sin is actually committed by the human will, isn‟t it? And yet we have in our bodies certain cravings.
Take the craving of appetite. Within certain bounds that is a healthy, proper thing. But the way men have perverted it today, some people are wanting to eat all day long. That isn‟t a natural thing. It is an unnatural lust or appetite. But the person who has that craving to eat when it isn‟t time to eat, what does he have to do with it, if he is going to live for health and for God? Crucify it. And so with affections which are not proper, or passions which are going out in the wrong way.
“The words „flesh‟ or „fleshly‟ or „carnal lusts‟ embrace the lower, corrupt nature; the flesh of itself cannot act contrary to the will of God. We are commanded to crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts. How shall we do it? Shall we inflict pain on the body? No; but put to death the temptation to sin. The corrupt thought is to be expelled. Every thought is to be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. All animal propensities are to be subjected to the higher powers of the soul” Adventist Home, page 127.
Oh, this is a wonderful sentence, dear friends. Victorious living does not mean that a man never has a craving that is wrong. It means that he is in control. By the grace of God, he is in control. He is in control of his eyes, his ears. He is in control of his feelings, his thoughts. He is in control of his appetites and affections, and passions.
When I say he is in control of his eyes and his ears and his thoughts, I don‟t mean that nothing wrong ever comes to his vision, or his hearing, or his thinking. But by the grace of God he has the power to decide whether to linger over the wrong scenes, or to expel them. And victorious living means that through the Holy Spirit he resists those wrong things that come to the eyes, the ears, the mind. He has victory.
We are told by inspiration that there are thoughts and feelings inspired by Satan that annoy even the best of men, but if they are repulsed as hateful, if they are not cherished, then the soul is not contaminated with guilt and no other one is injured by their influence (See Review and Herald, Mar 27, 1888.). Oh, that is a wonderful thing, dear friends.
“All animal propensities are to be subjected to the higher powers of the soul. The love of God must reign supreme; Christ must occupy an undivided throne. Our bodies are to be regarded as His purchased possession. The members of the body are to become the instruments of righteousness” Adventist Home, page 127.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 9 and we will see how Paul put it concerning his own experience. 1 Corinthians 9:27.
[“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” 1 Corinthians 9:27.]
What did Paul say he did with his body? He kept it under. What was on top? Why, his mind, his character, his spiritual life. His body was the servant instead of the master.
Are there millions of people today whose bodies rule them? Why, yes. Appetite, affection, and passion tell them what to do. The impulses just keep them coming here, there, and yonder, in that race after trying to satisfy their cravings. And the pitiful thing is, they never become satisfied. They sometimes become satiated and cynical, but the only true satisfaction is in the life of victory, in which the soul is on top, the body is in subjection.
Proverbs 4:23. The margin says “above all keeping.” Keep what? Keep your heart. Can you keep your heart? You know, in the world they have these pictures of Cupid shooting a dart into people‟s hearts. What a silly thing! What does the wise man say? Keep your heart.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” Proverbs 4:23.
Ah, friends, perhaps the greatest thing in deciding whether a man spends his life happily, is whether his affections go out after the proper objects or improper objects – it is what we love, what we cherish, what we desire and seek to get. If it is the proper thing and we work with God to achieve, to attain, to receive that which is worthy of our affections, oh, then life has abundant satisfaction. But few people are doing that.
“Keep your heart with” Proverbs 4:23,
What?
“All diligence” Proverbs 4:23,
(Above all keeping)
“For out of it are the issues of life” Proverbs 4:23.
Adventist Home page 54, a wonderful comment on this wonderful verse. (I wish in your notes you would make a special underlining or some way to call attention to this reference I am giving you now. I hope you will study it over and over. It is the key to the solution of many problems.)
“Gird up the loins of your mind, says the apostle; then control your thoughts, not allowing them to have full scope. The thoughts may be guarded and controlled by your own determined efforts” Adventist Home, page 54.
Do you have to think about every idea that comes into your mind? Do you have to linger on every picture that is presented to your eye? Oh, no.
“The thoughts may be guarded and controlled by your own determined efforts” Adventist Home, page 54.
You know one of the great lessons to be mastered during the teen years is guarding and controlling the affections. It is a very natural thing for young men during the teens to begin to think about young women as attractive, as desirable. It is a very natural thing for young women to begin to think about young men as handsome, as this young man or that young man as someone who has desirable traits. But the great lesson of the teens, my friends, is to learn how to relate oneself to those feelings. During the teen years the great lesson is to learn to control those feelings instead of expressing them, to have them under restraint instead of manifesting them. And why? Because all through life that lesson of self-control must continue to be carried.
Before I go any further with reading this I want to turn to my diagram on the board. Over on this side of the blackboard is the world of men. Over on this side is the world of women. And in between those two God has established certain barriers of reserve. And in marriage one man and one woman go into this sacred circle of marriage and nobody else is to go in there, just this one man and this one woman.
Before marriage this barrier between the world of men and the world of women stands there, and after marriage it still stands there as I am going to show you from references tonight. The standards of conduct, the standards of behavior both for the single and the married are very high and are designed to preserve purity. Purity in what we are studying tonight means regarding this sacred institution of marriage as something that belongs to just two individuals, the one man and the one woman who are brought together by God and united in holy matrimony.
Both before marriage, I repeat, and after, this man and every other man, all men, are to hold their affections and not pour them out over here on this one and that one and the other one. That is reserved for that one – that one. And so with the woman with the men.
All right. Now let‟s go back to our reference in Adventist Home, page 54:
“The thoughts may be guarded and controlled by your own determined efforts. Think right thoughts, and you will perform right actions. You have, then, to” Adventist Home, page 54,
Do what?
“Guard the affections, not letting them go out and fasten upon improper objects” Adventist Home, page 54.
Does God ever tell us anything that is impossible? He tells us many things that are impossible without His grace. But everything He has commanded us to do, dear friends, if we look to Him for grace, we can have the power to do it.
“You have, then, to guard the affections, not letting them go out and fasten upon improper objects. Jesus has purchased you with His own life; you belong to Him; therefore He is to be consulted in all things, as to how the powers of your mind and the affections of your heart shall be employed” Adventist Home, page 54.
So, before I love someone, I am to find out whether that is somebody who God has asked me to love. Will God be willing to guide me in that? We have been studying that in class after class. In this closing class of this series on preparing for marriage, I am studying with you the safeguards that God has established to keep men and women sufficiently apart, so that these close expressions of affection and passion are reserved for the privacy of the marriage state.
Now, we will go over to page 401 of Adventist Home:
“All should guard” Adventist Home, page 401,
What?
“The senses, lest Satan gain victory over them; for these are the avenues of the soul. You will have to become a faithful sentinel over your eyes, ears, and all your senses if you would control your mind” Adventist Home, page 401.
These senses, the hearing, the sight, the other senses, these are called what? The avenues to the soul.
Bunyan, who wrote that wonderful allegory Pilgrim’s Progress, wrote another one not so familiar to most readers called Holy War. And in this the great effort of the enemy was to get in a citadel called Man‟s Soul, in other words, the human heart, human soul. And this citadel had various gates, “Eyegate,” “Eargate,” and so with the other senses. And thus, Bunyan illustrated just what we are reading here:
“All should guard the senses, lest Satan gain victory over them; for these are the avenues of the soul. You will have to become a faithful sentinel over your eyes, ears, and all your senses” Adventist Home, page 401.
You know, in the old fortresses and castles they had guards stationed at the various entrances. And so we are to set a watch before our eyes, our ears, and every avenue to the soul. All our senses – watch, lest Satan gain advantage.
Turn to Psalm 101, will you? Notice what David made up His mind to do. What does he say?
“I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes” Psalm 101:3.
I wonder what David would do today with the TV. I wonder if he would have one. At least this verse is a good guide for those who have one, as to what to avoid:
“I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes” Psalm 101:3.
Well, why not? Because, friends, what goes into the eyes enters what? The mind. What goes into the ears, enters what? The mind. And listen, down at the hospital they have a stomach pump that can get rid of something you swallowed down here, if you can get to it soon enough. But tell me, friends, where will you go to find a pump to clean out of the mind what went in through the eyes and ears? Do you know of any pump like that? Ah, friends, there is many a man who would give a great deal to forget something that he saw ten, twenty, thirty, forty years ago. That is right.
Prevention is so important in these matters. Guard what? The avenues to the soul.
Page 403, near the bottom of the page:
“Those who would not fall a prey to Satan‟s devices must guard well the avenues of the soul; they must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing that which will suggest impure thoughts” Adventist Home, page 403.
Is there much to avoid today? Just about everything in the world around us, like Sodom and Gomorrah. Is this one reason that God has called us out of these cities? Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city. Come out of her, my people! The cities are filled with all sorts of things that divert the mind from God.
But now, dear friends, we not only need to get away from the cities, we need to be sure that we don‟t carry with us the influences of the cities.
Notice at the bottom of page 403:
“Everything that can be done should be done to place ourselves and our children where we shall not see the iniquity that is practiced in the world” Adventist Home, page 403.
I think this one sentence would do more to solve the TV problem than most anything I have read:
“Everything that can be done should be done to place ourselves and our children where we shall not see the iniquity that is practiced in the world” Adventist Home, page 403.
But today a person can live ten, twenty, thirty miles from a city and yet they can have right in their living room the filth and the crime and the folly of all the cities of the world brought right in there to the parlor, can‟t they? Is this what is happening? Yes. And do you know what that creates in the minds of the susceptible youth? A desire to go and get into that world.
“Everything that can be done should be done to place ourselves and our children where we shall not see the iniquity that is practiced in the world. We should carefully guard the sight of our eyes and the hearing of our ears so that these awful things shall not enter our minds. When the daily newspaper comes into the house, I feel as if I want to hide it, that the ridiculous, sensational things in it may not be seen” Adventist Home, pages 403-404.
Next paragraph:
“Those who would have that wisdom which is from God must become fools in the sinful knowledge of this age, in order to be wise. They should shut their eyes, that they may see and learn no evil. They should close their ears, lest they hear that which is evil and obtain that knowledge which would stain their purity of thoughts and acts” Adventist Home, page 404.
You know, this age, this generation prides itself on being very wise, but most of it is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If we are going to have purity, the purity that we are studying from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy tonight, there is much that is going on in the world, there is much that is taught in the world, the less we know about, the better. The more we learn about the proper relations between men and women from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, the less we observe how these things are being broken down in the world today, the better.
Go, please, to page 329. Let‟s notice that what is going on in the world today is not to affect us:
“The liberties taken in this age of corruption should be no criterion for Christ‟s followers. These fashionable exhibitions of familiarity should not exist among Christians fitting for immortality” Adventist Home, page 329.
What makes the dance so popular? Familiarity between men and women. What makes the nightclubs popular? The breaking down of the barriers between men and women. What makes these worldly parties popular? Same thing. The Christian is not interested in that. He is interested in preserving that sacred circle.
Page 335. Here we have a specific example of what familiarity is, and how we are to avoid it.
“Men who are doing God‟s work, and who have Christ abiding in their hearts, will not lower the standard of morality, but will ever seek to elevate it. They will not find pleasure in the flattery of women or in being petted by them. Let men, both single and married, say: „Hands off! I will never give the least occasion that my good should be evil spoken of‟” Adventist Home, page 335.
So, not only our hearts should be guarded, our hands should be guarded, our eyes, our ears, our tongues – what we say. In all these things we are to show that while we may be kind and sociable to a point, there is a certain barrier of reserve that conduct is to manifest.
On page 334, we have a beautiful statement:
“I appeal to you, as followers of Christ making an exalted profession, to cherish the precious, priceless gem of” Adventist Home, page 334,
What?
“Modesty. This will guard virtue” Adventist Home, page 334.
What is modesty? Well, modesty is an attitude of reserve manifest in conduct and in dress, in word, and action. Virtue, that means being pure, being chaste, not doing anything wicked, immoral. And the way to guard purity and virtue is to cherish what? Modesty. That is right.
Take Messages to Young People, please, and notice this statement on page 344. Here we have two great factors in this wall of reserve:
“A person‟s character is judged by his style of dress. A refined taste, a cultivated mind, will be revealed in the choice of simple and appropriate attire” Messages to Young People, page 344.
Notice this next sentence. I hope our girls, especially, will memorize this:
“Chaste simplicity in dress, when united with modesty of demeanor, will go far toward surrounding a young woman with that atmosphere of sacred reserve which will be to her a shield from a thousand perils” Messages to Young People, page 344.
This is this wall, this barrier of reserve. You know, a Christian woman in her attitude and her dress doesn‟t say to men, “Come hither.” Her dress and attitude say, “No trespassing.” “No trespassing.” The fashions of the world today are deliberately
designed to do just the opposite. That is what they are for. They are designed to break down these barriers of reserve.
Turn in your Messages to Young People to page 350. I want to give you one of the most important statements in our study tonight. Messages to Young People, page 350:
“Christians should not take pains to make themselves gazing-stocks by dressing differently from the world” Messages to Young People, page 350.
“Oh,” somebody says, “That is what I believe. I don‟t want to be a gazing stock. If the paragraph ended there, we might conclude that anything that makes people a gazing stock, [Christians shouldn‟t wear].
“Christians should not take pains to make themselves gazing-stocks by dressing differently from the world” Messages to Young People, page 350.
Then Christians shouldn‟t dress different from the world, should they? Well, wait a minute, what is the next word? But.
“But if, in accordance with their faith and duty in respect to their dressing modestly and healthfully, they find themselves out of fashion, they should not change their dress in order to be like the world. But they should manifest a noble independence and moral courage to be right, if all the world differs from them” Messages to Young People, page 350.
You mean if there was only one modest woman left in this world, she ought to dress modestly, even if all the other women in the world were dressing immodestly? Is that what this says? What does that take? Well, it takes courage. But I will tell you another thing it takes, friends, it takes information. There are a lot of dear Christian women, young and old, who somehow have gotten the idea that they must not be gazing-stocks. And one reason they get it is because so many people quote the first part of this paragraph and stop. They stop right there.
They stop with this warning about being gazing-stocks, and they say, “Why, my, if I were to wear a dress of modest length, why, I would just be a gazing-stock.”
May I read this again?
“Christians should not take pains to make themselves gazing-stocks by dressing differently from the world. But if, in accordance with their faith and duty in respect to their dressing modestly and healthfully, they find themselves out of fashion, they should not change their dress in order to be like the world. But they should manifest a noble independence and moral courage to be right, if all the world differs from them” Messages to Young People, page 350.
You see, dear friends, it just comes down to this simple thing: Does dress have anything to do with morality? Does dress have anything to do with maintaining the barriers of reserve? If it doesn‟t, well, then, let‟s just dress the way everybody does and not worry one way or the other. But if it does, then, there is a moral principle involved. Is that right? Oh, how good God has been to give us this instruction. What do you say? Read that whole section in this wonderful little book, Messages to Young People.
Now let‟s see if we can sum this up. God has planned in His mysterious wisdom for one man and one woman to be united in the sacred circle of marriage. He has never intended that outside of that sacred circle there should be those close, familiar experiences that belong inside the sacred circle, therefore, He has established barriers of reserve. A Christian society recognizes those barriers in dress, in association, in recreation and amusement, in reading and music, in conduct, in every relation of life. A pagan society breaks down those barriers and brings into human experience those excesses and iniquities that marked Sodom and Gomorrah and the world before the flood.
There is just one thing, dear friends, that encourages me about the present time: vice is so bold, immodesty so brazen, there is nothing very subtle about it. It ought to be, of all times, a time for those who want to be Christians to sense the essential point of being different from the world about us – not for the sake of being different, but for the sake of being right. That is the thing!
All right. Now let‟s go to Matthew 22 and we will see what underlies all of this. Matthew 22:37-38. I would like to have the class read this with me:
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” Matthew 22:37-38.
The first commandment is to love who? To love God. This is the first thing that must be settled. And my dear friends, when we, whether we are children, teenagers, adults, or old people, when we get this thing settled, that all our love is to be given to God, then all the rest that we have studied follows as a natural result. We understand, then, that no affection of the mind, no passion of the body, is to be allowed to rule us. Our love must be given, first of all, most of all, entirely, to whom? To Jesus.
You, dear young people that are not married, learn the joy of taking the love of your soul and instead of throwing it around in winks and writing little notes, in little flirtations, learn the joy of taking those loves, those affections, and centering them upon Jesus. Tell Jesus you love Him, and then take that love that He has put in your heart, and manifest it toward those that God has given you to love – your father, your mother, your brothers and sisters, and others that He arranges for you to love.
Thus your love will become pure and strong, and instead of being dissipated, diluted, taken away by being just thrown around here and there, I repeat, it can be kept strong, it can grow stronger as it is used in God‟s way. And when you come to the time of marriage, you will have a reservoir of pure love. Not only that, you will have already learned how to maintain those barriers of reserve which will make your home a holy place, a sanctuary where the devil cannot find any place to enter.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for these beautiful principles flowing like the river of life, fresh from the throne of God, issuing out of the sanctuary. We thank Thee for this river of delight, of pure love. Grant that everyone in this class, those who have taken it here in this chapel, those who will hear it in the tape recordings from time to time, grant that each one of us shall be thankful to God for the light of heaven, and shall show our appreciation by walking in the light. Where we are weak, strengthen us. Where we have been impure, cleanse us. Where we have been dissipating our vital powers, we pray Thou wilt help us to gather up the powers of mind and body, and use them in the way of God. And thus may we soon stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, with the pure throng that follow Him forever. For Jesus‟ sake, Amen.
Adapted from W.D Frazee’s Writings
