Doing Our Own Will: The Mark of the Antichrist [Leaflets]

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The Mark of the Antichrist

“And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and shall prosper until the indignation be accomplished: for that which is determined shall be done.” Daniel 11:36 N.Tr.

“The king shall do according to his will.” Ah!—are any of us sufficiently aware of what a fearful thing it is to be the doers of our own will? Here is the end of it. It was the first great characteristic of sin from the beginning. It is what Adam did; and the fall of the world was the immediate result. Here is one who at that day may seem to be the loftiest and most influential of men. But he does “according to his will.” And nothing worse. Are we to read such a history as this without moral profit to our own souls—to forget what an evil thing it is ever to be the doers of our own will? Let none suppose that, because they may be in a position to rule, they are therefore outside the danger. Alas!—it is not so. No one thing so unfits a person for righteous rule as the inability to obey. It is good first to know what it is to be subject.

Oh, may it strike deep into all our hearts that “the king,” the Antichrist, is first marked as one doing his own will. May it test us how far we are seeking our own will!—how far, under any circumstances, we are doing or allowing anything, that we could not wish every soul in this world to see—perhaps even those who are nearest to us. Alas, one knows, from experience and observation, the difficulty and danger in these things from one's own heart. Yet there is no one thing more contrary to that Christ Whom we have learned. We are sanctified “unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” It is not only to the blessing, the sprinkling of the blood, but to the obedience of Jesus Christ—to the same spirit and principle of obedience; for this is the meaning of the expression. We are not like the Jews who were put under the law, and whose obedience had the character of obligation to do such and such things under penalty of death. We are already alive unto God, conscious of the blessedness in which we stand, and awakened to see the beauty of the will of God; for His will it is which has saved and sanctified us. This is our calling, and our practical work here below.

Christians have no other business, properly speaking, than to do the will of Another. We have to do God's will accord-ing to the character of the obedience of Christ—as sons delighting in the will of our Father. It does not matter what we may have to do. It may be one's natural daily occupation. But do not make two individuals of yourselves—with one principle in your business or family, and another for the Church and for the worship of God. Never allow such a thought. We have Christ for everything and for every day. Christ is not a blessing for us merely when we meet together or are called to die; but if we have Christ, we have Him forever, and from the first moment we are emancipated from doing our own will. This we learn is death; but it is gone now in Christ's death. We are delivered, for we are alive in Him risen. But what are we delivered for? To do the will of God. We are sanctified unto the obedience of Jesus Christ.

W. Kelly

(From Lectures on the Book of Daniel)