By John Thiel, mp3

Scripture reading: Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

What is the thought contained in this scripture – Come now, and let us reason together – and in the words of this hymn, Take time to be holy?

I would appeal to the youth to consider their ways, to take time to think, to weigh their actions. {TMK 233.2}

Take time to be holy, take time to think. What does this draw our intelligent mind to consider? ‘Come now, and let us reason together.’ Salvation has to do with taking time to think. Salvation has to do with our deliberations. Our salvation in these modern times, in this time of the end, is frequently handed over to God as something for Him to see to, disassociated from us. ‘Please Lord, you save me, I can’t save myself. God, it’s all up to you.’ This is the subconscious mentality of modern Christianity today. There is nothing I can do, You must help me; You must do it. But what does God say? After inviting us to come, He says:

Isaiah 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].

‘Come and take time with Me, because if you are going to be saved from your sins, then you must be willing and obedient.’ That’s something to think about.

“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). We need not have a supposed hope, but an assurance. To make our calling and election sure is to follow the Bible plan to closely examine ourselves, to make strict inquiry whether we are indeed converted, whether our minds are drawn out after God and heavenly things, our wills renewed, our whole souls changed. To make our calling and election sure requires far greater diligence than many are giving to this important matter. “For if ye do these things”–live on the plan of addition, growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ–ye shall mount up, step by step, the ladder Jacob saw, and “ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” {19MR 351.4}

Take time to do that; take time to think so that you may be diligently included in God’s work for our salvation. Come, says God, let us do some examining and reasoning together. I wish to spend time with God together with you to diligently search His counsel that solicits our reasoning powers and our mind application as part of our participation in our salvation. As we venture forth we will behold that salvation from sin to righteousness and final eternal life is an intelligent interactivity with truth. That is what religion is all about.

Religion is a principle of the heart, not a magical word or a trick of the mind. {2MCP 412.1}

There is no mysticism in God’s Bible religion, none whatsoever. It is all a principle of intelligent interrelationship. Those who are waiting for a magical support will be disappointed. God is not a magician. Yes, He can recreate us just like that, but He has chosen not to do that. When He created us He made the human body out of the dust of the ground, and He breathed into man the breath of life. That was a scientific interaction. Now He wants us to be saved from our sin and He says, Come, let us reason together and work it out together. Take time to think. To think about what? Let Him tell us in Haggai:

Haggai 1:5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

The marginal reading says, Set your heart on your ways. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. ‘Consider in your heart your ways,’ saith the Lord. ‘Come and let us reason together.’ The first thing you are going to do as you take time to think, is to consider your ways. What are we to recognise as we examine our ways and as we stop and take time to think?

Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

What are you to think of as you take time to think? Consider your ways, and as you do, consider this: Whatever you sow, you also will reap. That’s uncomfortable, isn’t it? What have we sown in our past? Think about your ways. Whatever you have sown will produce a consequence. This is what He means when He says, Let us reason together. Look objectively at your life, at your ways, at what you have done, and at what you are doing right now. Everything that you are doing has its sowing and reaping in inevitable reality.

Proverbs 26:2 As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

Have you met some curses in your life? Humanity is meeting heaps at the moment. But what did God just say? All the curses have a cause. Everything that comes upon us has been caused; examine your ways. What are you doing and what have you done that has brought the effect?

Let your heart be examined. Do justice to yourself. What are you doing with the light and privileges that God has given you? Are the youth degrading the dignity of the mind as well as of the body? With eternity in view, with God before your eyes, will you let Satan take possession of your thoughts and your affections? I call upon you, my brother, to have regard for your own well-being for time and for eternity. You must choose for yourself. It is life or death with you. Just as long as you are intemperate you will be unable to appreciate eternal things. The principle you adopt becomes a living, molding influence; it will enter and will dwell in the depths of your nature. {18MR 256.1}

How many of us who have been youth have considered this, and then we wonder what is in the depth of our nature? It is a consequence of what I have done, what I have thought, the principles that I have chosen, the ideas that I have pursued; it has moulded me. I am where I am because of cause to effect. There is a powerful example given of this in the following statement:

My brother and sister, you have a work to do which no one can do for you. Awake from your lethargy, and Christ shall give you life. Change your course of living, your eating, your drinking, and your working. {2T 71.1}

Consider what you are doing. Stop to think. Don’t just plunge into doing everything. Consider what you are doing, and change the cause-to-effect that you don’t want.

While you pursue the course you have been following for years, you cannot clearly discern sacred and eternal things. Your sensibilities are blunted and your intellect beclouded. You have not been growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth as was your privilege. You have not been increasing in spirituality, but growing more and more darkened. You have made too much haste to acquire property, and have been in danger of overreaching, looking out for your own interest and not regarding the interest of others as you would like to have them regard yours. You have encouraged selfishness in yourselves, which must be overcome. Closely examine your own hearts, and in your lives imitate the unerring Pattern, and all will be well with you. Preserve a clear conscience before God. In all you do glorify His name. Divest yourselves of selfishness and selfish love. {2T 71.1}

What do we see in this example? The things that these two believers have done in their past have filled them with lethargy. They are practising a lifestyle, in their living, eating, drinking and working, which they must change. Stop to think about what you are doing, He says, look at your ways and examine everything you do from cause to effect. There are many people who when they stop to think, they feel that, Oh, it hurts too much. What would they rather do? There are many people today who behave like an ostrich. What does he do? When he is really in danger he puts his head in the sand, so that he doesn’t see what is going on. This is what mankind does; it’s too much to think, the skeletons are too severe, I don’t want to think, just don’t talk to me about it. But God says, No, stop and look; reason; consider your ways. God doesn’t let me off the hook. If I want to be saved, then He says, No, don’t be an ostrich, don’t plunge in what you think you are doing is okay without considering the consequences. Whatever you are doing, whether it is eating, living, working, stop to think, consider your ways.

How many people have said to me, I don’t really know. I was talking to someone not so long ago who said, I don’t really know. I said, Well, that’s good, continue to be honest; you don’t know, instead of thinking you know and then plunging on to do what you are doing. If you don’t know, be honest and say, I don’t know, Lord, You show me, and I will submit myself to Your counsel. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. What does He want us to do with the knowledge gained from the research of our ways? He tells you, Examine everything very carefully under My influence, as we reason together. Here is the principal thing, You must not think that God is going to save you with a magic wand. If you are going to do this work together with God, your sins that were as scarlet will be as white as snow. How is that possible? We will think about that as we proceed. But for now, stop to think what He wants us to understand in regards to the plan of salvation.

Proverbs 5:21 For the ways of man [are] before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.

God sees everything we are doing; it is all before Him. God takes time to ponder all our goings. Why is He taking time? He says to you, Stop and reason with Me, I am pondering your ways. And as we ponder our ways with Him, what do we see?

Proverbs 5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. 23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

This is what God knows. He says, ‘Stop to look and think about your ways, the ways that you are engaging in. You are putting your head in the sand; you don’t want to look at the consequences. You don’t know where it is leading, but I know where it is leading, and I want you to stop and reason with Me, because in everything you do you are sowing something which will finally take you into a position where you will be bound by cords of sins, and you will die without instruction.’ That is what happens when you have your head in the sand – you will die. What is all this about in regards to salvation? God says, Consider your ways, take time to think, and as you do, ponder what I am pondering – the reality of cause to effect.

We need a connection with divine power, that we may have an increase of clear light and an understanding of how to reason from cause to effect. {3BC 1160.2}

Why do we need a connection with God? We need the divine power so that we can see with clear light what God sees about my ways. In that clear light I am then reasoning from cause to effect.

We need to have the powers of the understanding cultivated, by our being partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Let each one consider carefully the solemn truth, God in heaven is true, and there is not a design, however intricate, nor a motive, however carefully hidden, that He does not clearly understand. {3BC 1160.2}

Think about that statement. This is the solemn truth, God in heaven is true, and there is not a design, however intricate, that He does not clearly understand. Do you have a design? Are you a designing person? Are you functioning under your own design as what you think you should do in a given situation? It may be ever so carefully hidden, a little design, a little motive that is carefully guarded and that nobody knows about; but God understands it clearly.

He reads the secret devisings of every heart. Men may plan out crooked actions for the future, thinking that God does not understand; but in that great day when the books are opened, and every man is judged by the things written in the books, those actions will appear as they are. . . . {3BC 1160.2}

‘Take time to think about your ways,’ God says. ‘Consider your ways, I ponder them, I see where they are going, they are going to lead to death. So be intelligent.’ Can you see that this is very solemn and serious material we are considering here?

Proverbs 4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget [it] not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. 6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. 

‘All the counsel that comes from Me, don’t push it aside.’

Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom [is] the principal thing; [therefore] get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

This is the counsel of the Lord. It is when God is welcome that our connection with God brings forth the understanding of our ways. When God is welcome in the heart, then we can consider our ways and behold our mistaken ideas, designs and motives. We will discover them in all their detail as to what they produced in my life.

Taking Time to Think

The thinking that God wants us to enter into, as uncomfortable as it is, as horrendous as it is, brings out all those details that I didn’t really want to see about myself.

Lamentations 3:38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? 39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto God in the heavens.

As we think and reason together, He says, Go and be a man, in the generic term, man or woman. Face up to it. Let it really rip; let it take its course. Let it show you exactly where you are going. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Let it show you what it has done in your life as cause to effect, and as you do, as you search out and try your ways, what should you do then? Return to the Lord. Open your heart to Him. Let Him have you in the very smallest details of the discoveries you are making as you stop and take time to think. What will you see when you see your ways and you return to God in reference to your ways? What will you see?

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Here is a declaration, but you will see it yourself if you stop to reason with God. You will see, Oh, my ways are as low as the gutter. You will see that your ways are completely different to God’s ways. And how will that impact upon the realisation of Proverbs 5?

Proverbs 5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. 23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

That is horrifying, isn’t it? That is what you will see. God’s ways are different to yours. God’s ways are eternal ways that will never come to an end. Your ways are the consequence of your sins which will destroy, and that is what will impact you when you see the contrast between God’s ways and your ways.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.

‘Your ways are not My ways; your ways are death. You will see it if you stop to think with Me. As you stop to think with Me and the impact of this strikes home, you will shrivel to the enth degree and realise, I am done; I am finished.’ But God isn’t finished with you yet. What did he say? Come, and let us reason together. If you will reason about your ways, then He says, Though your sins be red like crimson  – you can see them now, you have stopped to look and you see how absolutely deadly they are, red like crimson, death and bloodshed – though your sins and your ways are death, they shall be as wool. Those ways will be turned as wool? Though they be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. How can ways that have been sown and reaped turn from death into white purity? How is that possible? Remember what He said, My ways are not your ways. Stop to think. Let it continue to percolate through that brain that has been shattered by the discovery of itself. What are you to do in the light of it all?

Isaiah 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

This then take us to the step of Isaiah 1:19-20. ‘I will abundantly pardon. If you will return to Me, I have a way out. My ways are not your ways. You only see absolute death, you only see the consequence of your sins – what you have sown you shall also reap – but if you will now sow something fresh, if you will now sow to the Spirit, come to Me, I will pardon. My ways are not your ways. You are indeed condemned; you know that your heart condemns you, but I am greater than your heart.’ Let it sink in. He says, I will abundantly pardon, and you must now continue to think with Me.

Isaiah 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].

As you look at this, you have to make an intelligent decision. Take time to think, take time to be holy. As you take time to think about your condition and you realise that it’s done, you can’t change it, your condition is deplorable, you can’t even look up, you are in a desperate state, you are overcome with dismay over your hopeless situation, consider God’s way. Does that ring a bell? What did Jesus say?

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:

‘If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse My way for your way, then ye shall be devoured.’ What is the way? Jesus died because we are all dead men already. “If one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Co. 5:14). Will you become rebellious as you think deeply about your condition? Will you say, I don’t want to know! I want to keep my head in the sand! I don’t want to reason with you anymore! This is exactly what one man said to me, and people say it without saying it in words. The man actually said to me, John, I know where these studies are leading to, please, I don’t want anymore. So he continued in his ways. Consider your way in the light of Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. What was Jesus? and what are you to consider now? Take time to think. Christians today are not taking time to think about Jesus in all the enormity of God’s way in Him. As I see my way, because I have taken time to think, and I see that my case is desperate and hopeless; as I examine my ways, and I see that they are so hard to change, it is impossible, I am stuck, I am bound, I can’t change my procedures, it is all too heavy, Jesus says,

Hebrews 3:1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Take time to consider. Consider your ways, return unto the Lord, and now consider the Way, Jesus. Consider Him, the High Priest and Apostle of our profession.

Hebrews 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

That is what happens to us. If we will consider our ways we will become weary and we will faint. But as you are ready to faint, look and consider the High Priest of your profession, the Apostle of your profession. He was an apostle. What is an apostle? A man on earth who shows the way, who has revealed the way. Consider Him experiencing the contradictory mentalities of sin in the ways of man, the contradiction of the ways of man against Himself. Take time to think. As you take time to think, look unto Jesus and see how He will actually unveil to you God’s ways which are not your ways:

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Look at the whole program, think about it. What are you looking at? You are looking at Jesus taking hold of your ways and letting them take Him to the grave, which is just what your ways would do to you. What a contradiction, He was suffering our detailed consequences. As my detailed consequences are taken into the depth of the death of Christ, light comes out of the darkness. Whiteness comes out of redness. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Here is how this is possible. It is only as you look intelligently to Jesus and ponder Him. Look long enough. And as you do, what do you see?

Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Stop to think what flesh and blood means. Jesus took sinful flesh so that it could die. He took your and my sins in His body. Ponder and stop and take time to think, instead of just reading over and saying, ‘Praise the Lord! He died for me.’ Sorry, a lot of people who are saying that are going to be lost. They must take time to think about what these statements are saying in their living experience. And as they do, they will discover in their thoughts that they will be delivered, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. We are bound by our sins, caught in the traps of our condition. As I look at it, I see that I can’t even release myself – as we read in Proverbs 5, the wicked are bound by their own ways.

And now that I have stopped to look long enough to Jesus and I have taken time to think, I see Him dying with me. I must see it, and only if I stop to reason will this happen. If you don’t stop to reason, this won’t happen. Salvation has to do with the thoughts of our heart. We must stop to think, to behold Him, making our case His own. As we see it in the following scripture, God’s way was to make Jesus to be sin for us. What is sin? It is the transgression of the law. It is not some sort of airy fairy idea. Jesus was made to be sin and numbered with the transgressors (Isa. 53:12). If you see a crowd of transgressors over there, and Jesus is numbered with them, what does that mean? He was made to be sin. He was made to be a transgressor (He was made to be, He did not transgress).

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Stop and take time to think what these words mean in living reality! If you don’t take time to think about the meaning of these words, when God says, Come and let us reason together, then you will be rebellious, you will turn away back, and there is no hope. That is the hard reality. Take time to think and to consider. Take time to look into all this. Notice what people do with this problem of not taking the time.

A deadly spiritual malady is upon the church. Its members are wounded by Satan; but they will not look to the cross of Christ, as the Israelites looked to the brazen serpent, that they may live. The world has so many claims upon them that they have not time to look to the cross of Calvary long enough to see its glory or to feel its power. {5T 202.4}

Take time to think long enough about these things. If you don’t take time long enough, you will become rebellious.

When they now and then catch a glimpse of the self-denial and self-dedication which the truth demands, it is unwelcome, and they turn their attention in another direction, that they may the sooner forget it. {5T 202.4}

It is like putting your head in the sand, I don’t want to know. That is being unwilling and disobedient. ‘I want to forget. No, I don’t want to know, Lord.’ And God says, Okay, you continue in your disobedience. That is the reality.

The Lord cannot make His people useful and efficient while they are not careful to comply with the conditions He has laid down. {5T 202.4}

Can you see how far gone Christianity is today? It’s gone. And because we are affected by the goneness, we are in danger of saying, I don’t want to know. But today, in these last moments of earth’s history, the Lord is trying to reach into our inmost parts and is trying to get us to take note of what true Bible religion is. It means to take time and not let the world overcome us with its mentality of “rush on, push on, push on, this, that, next, next, next.” I have had to deliberately say, Sorry, I am busy. Then Satan comes and suggest, You are not busy, you are resting right now. I certainly have to rest, because if I don’t rest I won’t be here anymore. The madness in this world is overwhelming me to such a degree that if I don’t take time with the Lord and rest quietly in my own mind, I am done for; and brethren and sisters, you all have to do it like me, because if you don’t, you are gone. The world will push you on. You think you have to do this and that! But stop to think from cause to effect. When we stop to think, the Lord’s way will open up before us. Everything is lost out of sight, Jesus dies.

A clear, steady view of the cross of Christ would counteract their worldliness and fill their souls with humility, penitence, and gratitude. They would then feel that they are not their own, but that they are the purchase of Christ’s blood. {5T 202.3}

A clear, steady view of the cross will do that to you, if you stop to look long enough. Once you have that clear, steady view of the cross and it has its impact; now that you have taken time to think, take time to be holy. That is another factor. Continue to take time in order to continue the process. You have now come to the point of realising where you are, and you have discovered God’s wonderful way of bringing light out of darkness – He brings the deadly sin to the purity of white wool and snow, because He can do it through Jesus – and now that He has done that for us, I must then continue in the exercise, I must develop character. My evil past has been removed by Jesus, I have taken time and I rejoice in that, but now I must be holy. To be holy means a good character. I must have the character of Jesus. How does that happen? By taking time to be holy.

Compassed with temptation as you are, nothing will be sufficient as a safeguard against evil except the indwelling of Christ in your hearts through faith in His righteousness. You must practice His virtues, making Him your daily pattern. . . . {TMK 233.2}

Good character does not come by chance; {TMK 233.3}

Again, it is cause to effect. Good character does not come by waving a magic wand; it doesn’t come by chance.

…it is formed by persevering, untiring effort. The youth should seek to make all that is possible of themselves, by improving every entrusted talent and capability to the glory of God. The world’s Redeemer says, “Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour will give strength and solidity to your character. Those who have faith in Christ will be sober-minded, ever remembering that God’s eye is upon them, that angels of God are watching to see what manner of characters they will develop. . . . {TMK 233.3}

Consider your ways. Consider God’s ways, and follow His character.

Individually, probation is granted to you in order that you may form characters for the future, immortal life. Precious, golden moments are given you that you may improve them according to the light which the Lord has graciously permitted to shine upon you from the throne of His glory. . . . {TMK 233.4}

We must continue to take time, and not let anything distract us.

Christ is the greatest teacher the world ever knew. Where He abides in the heart by faith, His spirit will become a vitalizing agent to purify and vivify the soul. . . . {TMK 233.4}

The truth in the heart will surely have a correcting influence on the character. {TMK 233.5}

If I don’t continue to apply the truth to my heart, I won’t develop my character. I must take time to be holy.

Hold the truth as from God, as a treasure of the highest value, that must not be dimmed or tarnished by evil practices that are wholly out of harmony with its holy character. {TMK 233.5}

Discard all things that in the past were your habits (because habits form character).

Under the divine influence of truth the mind will be strengthened, the intellect invigorated, and that which is useless will be discarded for that which is pure and beneficial. Under the influence of truth the Christian character will develop through the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. {TMK 233.5}

Take time to think, take time to be holy. Now we know the true meaning of Lamentations.

Lamentations 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto God in the heavens.

Give over. Lift up your heart. Let His ways continue to be the governing force in your life. Here is now a beautiful summary of all that we have contemplated here:

Here, my sister, is a subject for your prayerful consideration and earnest meditation. Closely examine your own heart as in the light of eternity. Hide nothing from your examination. Search, oh! search, as for your life, and condemn yourself, pass judgment upon yourself, {2T 81.1}

Don’t examine the other one. Don’t worry about trying to fix up the other one; you have more than enough to do yourself. Mark that, brethren and sisters. You have no time to consider the brother or sister beside you in regards to fixing them up. Search, oh! search as for your life, condemn yourself, pass judgment upon yourself,

…and then by faith claim the cleansing blood of Christ to remove the stains from your Christian character. Do not flatter or excuse yourself. Deal truly with your own soul. And then as you view yourself a sinner, fall, all broken, at the foot of the cross. Jesus will receive you, all polluted as you are, and will wash you in His blood, and cleanse you from all pollution, and make you fit for the society of heavenly angels, in a pure, harmonious heaven. There is no jar, no discord, there. All is health, happiness, and joy. {2T 81.1}

Salvation is a science; it is a trade, an apprenticeship, something to apply to intelligently so that we may take it into our heart, mind and strength and let the truth settle in us both intellectually and spiritually so that we cannot be moved. And when the heavens fall, which they truly will, we will be among the 144,000.

May God make that a reality to us.

Amen.

[22 Oct. 2011]