"My message to you is: No longer consent to listen without protest to the perversion of truth." Selected Messages Book 1, Pg. 196

"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden;" Genesis 2:10

"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Revelation 22:1

I want to draw your attention to a river that flows all the way from Eden to the New Earth. It proceeds from the throne of God and it is a River of Grace, Mercy and Love, but it is also a river of Law and Justice. From Genesis to Revelation, Christ is the Alpha, the first link, and the Omega, the last link, of the gospel chain, which is welded in Revelation. He is the River of the Water of Life to this lost world.

Down through the years of History from the fall of our first parents to the kingdom restored in the New Earth, flows this chain, this River of Life. Before the entrance of sin, the river of God’s love and care for His created beings was flowing from Eden, but after the fall, a new intensity of mercy and grace were needed to save the doomed race.

"My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:" Deuteronomy 32:2

This is ‘Common Grace’, the mercy of God that allows life to continue; that woos and pleads with every person born into this world; that interferes for good in the affairs of men with the intent that opportunity and power for Salvation be made available to every child of Adam.

It was this Common Grace that saw that the wickedness of man was so great in the earth, that unless drastic measures were taken, the race would destroy itself, long before Messiah could actually make His appearance; and God wiped the slate clean with a world-wide flood. It was in Mercy that this had to happen, so that the purpose of God to redeem the race, would not be not prevented.

But the Common Grace, which still is universal until it will be finally reluctantly withdrawn from the wicked at the close of probation, has a purpose beyond just allowing life to continue on this planet. Its main purpose is to reach hearts and woo them into returning to their Father’s home; to come back into the family of God; to agree to surrender to the will of their Maker and come into covenant relationship with Him.

Through the immeasurable sacrifice of the Son of God, provision was made for past sins to be forgiven; and power through Christ provided for the sinner to be re-created in the image of Christ. This River of Mercy, Grace and Power has flowed from the gates of Eden though the Earth; and will flow on until all the purposes of God towards fallen man are accomplished. All who are willing to accept the terms of Salvation and return to the Covenant of Obedience to the Creator will be ransomed from the fall and serve Him forever.

"Christ has pledged Himself to be our substitute and surety, and He neglects no one. There is an inexhaustible fund of perfect obedience accruing from His obedience. In heaven His merits, His self-denial and self-sacrifice, are treasured up as incense to be offered up with the prayers of His people. As the sinner's sincere, humble prayers ascend to the throne of God, Christ mingles with them the merits of His life of perfect obedience. Our prayers are made fragrant by this incense. . ." In Heavenly Places, pg. 69

The covenant is available to all, but sadly, most reject it:

"These promises are not made to a few, but to all who will come to the heavenly banquet that God has prepared by sending His Son to our world to die in our behalf, that through faith in Him, we should become one with God. The praise and glory of His grace, power, and wisdom is the effectual salvation of a peculiar people. Wonderful possibilities are provided for every one who has faith in Christ. No walls are built to keep any living soul from salvation. The predestination of which God speaks includes all who will accept Christ as a personal Saviour, who will return to their loyalty, to perfect obedience to all God's commandments. This is the effectual salvation of a peculiar people, chosen by God from among men. All who are willing to be saved by Christ are the elect of God. It is the obedient who are predestinated from the foundation of the world." Manuscript Releases Volume Six, pg. 388

God has another word for the few out of each generation who have chosen to respond to His Common Grace and come up higher and enter into the covenant of Saving Grace; He calls them His Church and also His Remnant.

"For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness." Isaiah 10:22

Who or What is the Church or the Remnant?

"Christ has a church in every age. Obedience to the commandments of God gives us a right to the privileges of this church. There are those in the church who are made no better by their connection with it. They themselves break the terms of their election. If we comply with the conditions God has made, we shall secure our election to salvation. Perfect obedience to his commandments is the evidence that we love God." Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 07-17-00

"From Genesis to Revelation the conditions upon which eternal life is promised, are made plain. God requires that those who shall enter heaven shall be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Keep my commandments and live, is the requirement of God." Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 09-03-01

There is much confusion about whether the people that lived before the Cross were saved differently than those who lived after, but the only difference is, that those who overcame and entered into the covenant before the Cross, where looking by faith to a Saviour Who was to come; and those who lived after and entered into the covenant and overcame were and are looking by faith to a Saviour Who has come.

"… But the gospel is taught all the way through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The gospel is revealed in all the prophecies of the first advent of Christ as the Saviour of men. Every act of the old dispensation to turn men away from sin or to bring them forgiveness was done with reference to the Saviour who was to come. He was the steppingstone by which man was to be exalted." Manuscript Releases Volume Ten, pg. 156

So what about the terms the "Old Covenant" and the "New Covenant"?

Really, it is very simple, the "Old Covenant" was straightforward, God said "Obey My Law and you shall live, Disobey and you shall surely die!"

But Adam and Eve disobeyed and opened the floodgates of sin and misery on this world. They also passed onto their children a legacy of a sinful nature, rebellion and the inability to keep the Law of God. Without Divine interposition, man could not meet the requirements of God, even if he wanted to, even if he chose to, he would fall and fail.

This is where the New Covenant came in:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:" Hebrews 8:10

"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:" Jeremiah 31:31, 32

You can see by these texts, one from the New Testament and one from the Old, that it was not showing a different kind of salvation then than there is now, both before the cross and after, the only way man could be saved is by the Grace of God and the River of Mercy found in the Blood of the Lamb, by the uniting of the Divine with the human, by the obedience of faith.

"For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth." Deuteronomy 14:2

Abraham was one of God’s Remnant, a member of God’s church because he chose to obey God and accept Saving Grace. Jesus made it clear that Abraham was the father of the faithful because he was obedient to God’s will. He also made it clear to the Jews that just being in the ‘chosen’ nation did not help them if they themselves were not being obedient.

"They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham." John 8:39

Now what did God do with this people that made them a ‘chosen’ people? He gave them special revelations of Himself. He had taken a group that He intended to give special training, in hopes that as they walked in obedience to His laws and learned His wisdom, they would be a people that would obey Him and so be blessed, and all the world would come to learn of God, when they saw how worthwhile it was to serve Him. They were to be a living object lesson, to teach and attract all the people of the earth. He promised to use them to be a blessing to all the earth.

Did this ‘choosing’ mean that Israel was all automatically saved just by being in the group? No, they each still had to choose whether they themselves would be obedient and surrender to God’s will, before they experienced saving grace, just like any person does. Notice here that it is clear that God’s Word, His law, was the basis of receiving His blessing.

He gave them a special revelation of His will for man in the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, and Israel at that time promptly said; "That’s fine, we will do all that the Lord has said." This was the covenant THEY wanted to make, "Don’t worry, Lord, we can do it ourselves." But the covenant that God wanted to make was this one:

"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." Deuteronomy 1:33

Every person of Israel who saw that they themselves could NOT obey God without Divine interposition was saved by the new covenant. "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever." Isaiah 59:21

So we can see clearly that being a part of Israel did not have any saving properties in itself. Those who did not come into covenant with God, where just as lost as the heathen next door; in fact they were worse off, because they had the holy oracles available to them and so had more light to answer for.

What a sad tale is this one: "But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me." Psalm 81:11

Some people point out incidents in history where God interposed in various ways with Israel, even when they were not obeying Him, and say, "See, He had a special soft spot for them." No, He did it for His Name’s sake; to keep His Word. And He is a God of Mercy, because no matter how badly people had strayed, if and when they repented and cried to Him for help, turning their hearts to Him, He replied to them and helped them.

"Be ye not stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into His sanctuary, which He hath sanctified forever: and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you. For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away His face from you; if ye return unto Him." 2 Chronicles 30:8, 9.

He warned that there would come a time when His special teaching of them would end, and so it did in AD 34. The time allotted to the Jews ended and the times of the gentiles began.

God had chosen to use the Jews as a tool by which to reach the gentiles and the rest of the world, as a nation they failed; but God did not fail, because through Jesus the entire world has been blessed indeed. But through all this time, the Lord has always had some who obeyed Him and treasured His Word of Truth; these are His remnant.

"But the true faith was not to become extinct. God has ever preserved a remnant to serve Him. Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, in unbroken line, had preserved from age to age the precious revealings of His will. The son of Terah became the inheritor of this holy trust. Idolatry invited him on every side, but in vain. Faithful among the faithless, uncorrupted by the prevailing apostasy, he steadfastly adhered to the worship of the one true God. "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth." Psalm 145:18. He communicated His will to Abraham, and gave him a distinct knowledge of the requirements of His law and of the salvation that would be accomplished through Christ." Patriarchs and Prophets, pg. 125

"Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." Isaiah 1:9

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth." Isaiah 10:20

"The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God." Isaiah 10:21.

The Exodus was an example, it had been predicted that after this dark time of slavery, God would send deliverance, and the prophet Moses was sent to announce that this time had come and lead the people out.

At the Advent of Christ, the time of His coming was foretold by Daniel and the prophet, John the Baptist announced when the time was fulfilled.

But there was another time prophecy, the long one, that announced when the times of the gentiles was completed and a change in heavenly ministration would come, this prophecy pointed to 1844. And in the fall of 1844 the Gift of Prophecy was again bestowed, to give light on the Heavenly Sanctuary services and point back to the neglected Law.

The trials and disappointments of the Advent people at that time, acted to purge and shake the believers, until a small group remained that were determined to know truth. Very quickly with their own great efforts and the blessings of the Spirit of Prophecy, they were brought back to a purity of doctrine, not seen since apostolic times.

God anointed this movement with the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy, and then God gave this movement a name, Seventh-day Adventist. Once again He had chosen a people through whom He intended to instruct and bless the whole world, a people who were to hold the oracles of truth. He called them to do a job for Him, to take the truths He had given them to the whole world.

The oracles of God in Israel’s time were the books of Moses, the 10 Commandments and the writings of all the later prophets. What are the oracles of God that we were given to carry to the world? The same thing and in addition, the special understandings of the Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation AND ALSO the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy! Yes—the Spirit of Prophecy writings are part of the oracles of God entrusted to us to share with the world.

The unbelief and disobedience of the Jews, did not turn the truth of God into a lie and the Covenant did not save those who chose to reject its requirements. It is the same today; the refusal of this movement to obey and walk in the blazing light that has been entrusted to us does not lessen the value of that light! But it does increase the guilt of those that reject it and refuse to walk in its counsels.

This movement is part of the mighty River of Grace—God started then to call out a people and prepare them to be translated, while at the same time using them to give a last mighty cry of mercy and warning to a world that is soon to be arraigned before the Judgement Seat of God.

This movement is based on the truths that started it out, the prophecies of Daniel. Through the Spirit of Prophecy, truths have been added to the foundation but the beginning stands firm. Truth after truth has been brought forth from the inspired writings until a platform has been established and attested to by the Holy Spirit. That platform is not to be changed or dismantled and any so-called ‘new light’ that disturbs the least plank in that platform is not to be accepted.

Over and over they were warned by the Spirit of Prophecy, that it wasn’t new light at all, but old darkness. It was really a turning back to Egypt as they learned the concepts of reformation theology and sought to present these mouldy old, paganism mixed, half-truths to the people who had been led out and away from these things into the light of pure, biblical truth. How very sad.

Who did God say were the Israelites? They were those that knew, loved and obeyed His Laws and sometimes the remnant were scattered and few. But the truth stood solid, nothing could overcome that.

Jesus made it clear to the Jews, the name will not save you because the name without the truths and the commitment that the name implies is meaningless. Think not to say within yourselves, ‘We have our name on the church books, we are members in good and regular standing’: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up Seventh-day Adventists!

Only those who believe and obey the truths that this movement is founded on; only those who have entered into the Covenant with God to live by every word that proceedeth out of His mouth, to learn and understand and share the special light given to this movement, greater than any people before us, are His chosen people. Only they are the Remnant!

I want to tell you something; these truths will triumph. It is NOT the organization that will go through; it is NOT the conference; it is NOT the buildings and the committees and the learned theologians that are going to triumph. It is the Advent truth, the platform established by the pioneers under the guidance of the Spirit of Prophecy, and the humble remnant who treasure and love these truths above life itself, are going to triumph with it. Don’t be fooled; the ‘structure’ is going to be ‘swept away’ but the TRUTH will triumph. I hope you choose today to triumph with it! (Selected Messages Book 1, pg. 204)

"The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return:" Isaiah 10:21, 22

There is a river; the streams thereof make glad the children of God. It is the River of Grace and Truth. It has flowed undiminished through the ages and none who have sought its pure, vitalizing waters have ever been disappointed. Though earth has become like a baked and barren desert, all those who plant themselves by this river, flourish like ever-green trees, no drought can harm them, neither can any storm uproot them. For they are blessed; they are God’s remnant, and some day soon, they will be transplanted to the Garden of the Lord.

And so we close our BORDERLAND studies—may God bless you all!