The Consummation and Its Consumption

By John Thiel, mp3

We have been pondering upon the feud between self and God’s love. We have come down to the ultimate consequence of what self will produce.

Galatians 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Here the apostle lays out so plainly before us. The contrast of the liberty of God’s love and how it can be so easily switched into the occasion of the flesh – self. If we exercise ourselves according to the flesh and self, what is the ultimate consequence? Self will bite and devour others. Take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This is what will happen when self is not subdued.

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. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

If we sow according to the Spirit, we will reap if we faint not. These are very important words because self is there with us if we continue to sow according to the flesh, to self. We will reap according to that and in our effort to sow according to the spirit, there is a conflict as we have studied. There is an internal enmity that goes on and on and it causes some people to faint. If we faint not, we will reap according to the Spirit. When we do faint, the feud between self and God’s love is lost in the favour of self. That will have a harvest. The harvest is what was expressed that we will be consumed one of another.

As we contemplate this scenario of the feud between God’s love and self, God’s love reveals something. His true nature in this particular feud. God reveals something very profound. He knows this feud exists and He reveals His nature in this feud.

Micah 6:1 Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. 2 Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

I love God’s humour. He says, come my people, contend with me. Come and contend in front of the mountains. When you are in the presence of the majestic mountains and you want to contend. I love His humour. It’s most precious. The Lord says, Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’S controversy. What is the controversy that God has? It’s the controversy with self in the human race in contrast to His great love. He will plead with Israel.

Micah 6:3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me. 4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

What have I done to you? Why are you complaining to me? Self complains. He says, come on; contend with me I am prepared to take it on. What have I done to you? I have saved you from utter destruction; I have redeemed you by my precious gift of Jesus Christ. I have gone before you. Yes Moses was a representative of Jesus and Aaron of Jesus the High Priest; I have done all this. Wherein have I wearied thee?

Micah 6:8 He hath showed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

What does the Lord require of you? I haven’t given you anything to weary you. What is wearying you? This is His wonderful provision in love and there is something that wearies us?

Isaiah 30:15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. 16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. 17 One thousand [shall flee] at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.

There is a very significant line up of expressions here. I have brought you into peace; I have given you Jesus Christ the Prince of peace that you will be saved as you return and rest in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: In me you will find your strength. What was the problem? And ye would not. What is that? That is self. You said, no, we are going to do this ourselves. I know that we have to flee; I know that we have to flee the wrong and come to the right, but we are going to do it ourselves? We will flee upon horses we will ride upon the swift. God says, okay off you go and others will be swifter than you because there are the strong and the weak. Ultimately, the one that is the strongest of all is the devil himself. He will chase and destroy everybody. He is swifter than anyone. Do what you choose, but I will wait.

Isaiah 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait…

As people follow their own selfish ways and engage with their own self, the Lord knows where it is going to lead and so He waits. It is your choice. If you want to sow to the flesh, I will wait. Then as they move on, they will be caught. They will be affected and don’t you see that in the history of Israel how He has permitted that to happen? He says, but the people shall dwell in Zion;
he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. Just like you cried in Egypt, you are going to keep crying to me because of the consequences of self.

Isaiah 30:18…that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD [is] a God of judgment: blessed [are] all they that wait for him. 19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. 20 And [though] the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction…

As you go and do what you choose to do, you will go through the water of affliction. You will have the bread of adversity; everything will have a consequence. The Lord is not mocked; what a man soweth, that shall he also reap. So I am waiting He says.

As you meet your affliction, you will have teachers that I send.

Isaiah 30:20 …yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: 21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This [is] the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

As you let this percolate into your mind, this is phenomenal. I’ll wait. He says. You do what you have to do, but as I wait, you will see the consequences and if you will listen to my teachers that I am sending after you have gone from pillar to post, after you have been sent from one set of trouble to the next set of trouble, I am waiting and you will hear your teachers. You will recognise them because they will give you the right answers. Your ears will hear a word behind you saying, yes that’s right.

This is our God. The ultimate manifestation after all of earth’s history is the consummation where people who will refuse even the final wonderful blessing of God, who will refuse all that He has done to try to help them; if they refuse, what will they reap? They will reap the consummation.

Psalm 9:15 The heathen are sunk down in the pit [that] they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. 16 The LORD is known [by] the judgment [which] he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.

If people want to cling to self, their selfisms will lay traps which will be their own undoing; they will become consumed. This is the message that I want to show in this Divine Service – the consummation and its consumption. After all God has done to break up self in us, He has given us wonderful consistent love and mercy, and we doggedly press on with self, what is going to happen? We have the prime example in Lucifer. What is going to happen to him with his selfism that he doggedly held on to? God doesn’t interfere with your choices. He didn’t interfere to stop Satan forcefully and neither will He interfere with any one of us.

A Fire Fom the Midst of Thee

Ezekiel 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never [shalt] thou [be] any more.

What did He say is going to happen from inside of Lucifer? A fire will come forth from inside of Lucifer. As he doggedly exercises his selfism and he continually gets beaten and he comes back with another selfism and he gets beaten and he comes back with another selfism; it will ultimately culminate in a total implosion. There we have an example of what we will meet inside of ourselves. Let us watch what God means with I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee.

Isaiah 26:11 LORD, [when] thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: [but] they shall see, and be ashamed for [their] envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

Lucifer, his selfism, his fire. We often use those terms, look at that fiery person, look how i ntense they are. That fire will finally consume and devour. They don’t understand because self is so in front of them, they don’t understand but they will. There is a beautiful summary of what God will do after the 1000 years when they will be resurrected and they will wonder. Here comes down the Holy City and they will say aha there is the city, let us take it. Self again, we will surround it. As they do that, because they doggedly continue in exercising the self they exercised before death; they will surround that city.

Like Lucifer, their selfism will be the source of their own destruction. That is how God is known. We read it in Psalms 9 verse 15 and 16. The wicked are going to be self- destructing. As I hinted already, is self a fire that will consume?

Isaiah 50:10 Who [is] among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh [in] darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. 11 Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass [yourselves] about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks [that] ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

Notice the way that the Lord is speaking here; He is speaking to those who are listening to His word. You that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant. I will give you teachers according to my heart; they will help you. You are walking in darkness and you have no light. If you are listening to me He says, trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon (your) God. What about those that aren’t going to do that who are going to let self be the force that governs them?

Ye that kindle a fire. Alright, you kindle your own fire. Here is the story of the Hebrew sanctuary where God kindled the fire in the altar of incense and any person who does not take from the fire that God has kindled but from self, they compass themselves around with the sparks of their own self. The fire that they can see is of great value. He says, all right, walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks [that] ye have kindled. What shall you have? It will be the very thing that the consummation will reveal.

This trust in God he contrasts with trust in self. “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire,” he says, “that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” {YI, December 28, 1899 par. 6}

How true this is when somebody crosses self. Has anybody ever crossed you? What happens when somebody crosses you? Can you feel a fire inside? Can you feel something burning in there? People use this terminology, the person reacts and another says, I don’t like your steam coming up my nose. This is the language they use because self is a fire. It reacts when something goes contrary to it; it starts to burn to erase it.

Firstly a high degree of feeling is self like a fire. Secondly, there is a combative firmness in likes and dislikes and self-esteem. You cross somebody’s strong likes and dislikes, what happens? Can he or she be quiet? No; fire. Thirdly, there is a sensitiveness that will not bear contradiction, or bear provocation. That is self, a fire.

I will not bear contradiction. If somebody contradicts me, I have to fight through until I get my point across; that is self. It is being crossed and it will ignite. Fourthly, distrust. Self distrusts other people. It can’t really entrust itself to anybody’s opinion. Distrust, alienation comes; malice; fire. Fifthly, because I am burning inside with the person who contradicted me, I will now note his shortcomings. Have you ever been in an argument where you have levelled something at somebody and they have said, what about you? This is no different to you. This is noting the faults of others; self, self, self. And finally the sixth one. Because self is being affected we become outspoken, blunt and rough. There is a fire.

The Fire of Self through Prophecy

Let us look at those six points and see them in action as a display in the history of the nations of that fire of self; that action and reaction when paths are crossed. We don’t need to go into a big long study, because we know the prophecies well.

Nebuchadnezzar

Look at the empire that I have built. What did God have to do with him? God saw something in him and he really dealt with self in Nebuchadnezzar didn’t he? He brought him right down to become mad but showed him His love at the same time. That is what God does all the time. Nebuchadnezzar was one of the kings that became a converted man but what a demonstration of the affliction and the bread of adversity that is illustrated. He conquered other nations around him and then Babylon is punished for its proud, self-energised fighting for its own position.

Medo Persia comes in and there you have another kingdom. As you look at the description of the ferocious beasts, if you study the history in detail which I don’t like reading it as it’s horrifying, the kind of mental selfisms that were being exercised between kings and the warriors themselves, the more that they were opposed, the more ferocious they became and they fought hand to hand. Can you imagine the fire that was going on?

Greece and Alexander the Great

He was so proud, so energetic, so passionate and so impulsive that he drank himself to death.

Rome

We don’t need to spend much time in going into the details of the asserting of self right down to the time of the Jews. In the midst of that, who asserted themselves claiming to be God’s people? It was Jerusalem; Israel, the Hebrews, the Jews. Come up to the point in time down to Cestus, then Titus of Rome and how selfism was more strong among the Jews because they had rejected their Lord and Saviour. Their selfism caused the final destruction of Jerusalem. Titus wasn’t happy to destroy it entirely; he didn’t want to destroy the temple, but it was the fire of the Jews that caused the fire of the Romans. Selfism in both companies that ran right over the top of what Titus wanted.

The Papacy

After Rome there was the papacy and the multiple nations that existed asserting self-rights. Go through the study of the barbaric tribes. Barbarism; self is the demonstration of barbarism. War and bloodshed, the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Saracens full of pride and self claiming to be worshipers of Allah.

As the Catholics were worshipers of God (so-called). What were they worshiping? They were doing the exact opposite to the softness and gentleness of the Saviour who had been on earth that they all claimed was a wonderful person. The Catholics called him the Saviour. The Mohammedans called him a prophet but missed the point all the way through as the Hebrews did.

It comes up to the point as you go through the seven trumpets, all the description of the selfisms exercised up to the point in time of the fall of the Ottoman empire and the pain that is still in the hearts of Muslims and of the Arab world today. They hate the fact that they lost their empire. They are planning a world jihad. The Muslim brotherhood is planning to get its power again. You can see as they are working self is on display.

The Middle East

In the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians; it’s a madness. Attack and counter-attack, pay back; self, self, self. A fire. I will vow to get back for the way I have been treated. All their self-centred enterprise, war, bloodshed, etc, consuming passions. Last of all there comes USA; that great self-centred super power. We have the answer in democracy. We must give all the nations democracy. This is the answer; we have the answer to the world’s problems. Self, self, self. What is the declaration of God at the consummation of these things? This is a beautiful pencil stroke across the entire world history from the time of Christ.

Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:

That is Jesus; another seven years of grace to the Hebrew nation.

Daniel 9:27 …and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,

That’s the death of Christ, there are three and a half years in between.

Daniel 9:27 …and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

In the marginal reading it says desolator.

The abominations and selfism activities as you see them all through history from the time of Christ are described here. With the overspreading of abominations the desolations take place even until the consummation and the consummation being determined shall be poured upon the desolator. Everyone who is a desolator will be consumed because their desolating activities will consume in their own experience their own selves.

Here we come to a very valuable conclusion in the study of the prophecies. Here we have the ultimate conclusion of all the world history up to the point in time where the consummation is due to take place and the Arab world the king of the North makes his thrust to control the world to cause a jihad.

Daniel 11:45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace…

What are the tabernacles of his palace? His palace is the ruling position, the place of where he governs from, the building, the tabernacles of his palace, he will plant them

Daniel 11:45 …between the seas in the glorious holy mountain;

What do we expect here? Because the Arab world wants to have its position back, its headquarters were Turkey. It will put its headquarters into Jerusalem. There is the stroke that all that has happened before will just unleash a bloodshed as all the way through history but this is now the consummation.

The Close of Probation and the Plagues

Daniel 11:45 …yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

Daniel 12:1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation [even] to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame [and] everlasting contempt. 3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Mark that because when we come to the rest of our meditation at the end, this is a perfect fit. Here it is; the consummation is about to take place. The last plagues are to take place; the consummation, the consuming of self. What has man done to his planet? That is what he is going to reap; the plagues. One of them is warfare.

Here is the consummation of everything that has happened beforehand.

Jeremiah 25:12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, [that] I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

Babylon is going to be punished.

Jeremiah 25:13 And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, [even] all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. 14 For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. 15 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.

Did you just see an account of self here? Self is manifested in this and God has just beautifully summarised it all. Starting at Babylon; Babylon will be punished. I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it. How? By the raising of their enemies and they in their selfism conquered it and destroyed it. All that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations, for many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also. That is a beautiful summary of the whole picture of the warfare right through. I will recompense them.

In His punishment of the wicked they are going to be meeting the recompense of their own selfism. I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. That is what He calls the wine cup of His fury, the vials of wrath.

Jeremiah 25:29 For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished?

He’s just concluded all the names of all the nations and while I’m going to punish Israel, Jerusalem, all the other nations are going to be punished as well.

Jeremiah 25:29 …Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts. 30 Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread [the grapes], against all the inhabitants of the earth. 31 A noise shall come [even] to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them [that are] wicked to the sword, saith the LORD. 32 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. 33 And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from [one] end of the earth even unto the [other] end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.

I will give them according to the works of their own hands. They are full of self and they will consume themselves. I have been holding those winds of strife, says the Lord (Revelation chapter 7), those four angels. All that has to happen is for me to let go; all that has to happen is for my Holy Spirit to be withdrawn that is holding you back, and your self that you doggedly hold onto will consume you.

We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. {GC 36.1}

Self, fully under the control of Satan.

The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God’s mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. Ibid

Do you remember, he said, I am waiting.

But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest. Ibid.

In the light of what we have just studied, do we indulge self? If we do and we do not heed the mercy of God and His wonderful character but we doggedly keep on exercising self, what is going to happen? An unfailing harvest. God will not execute punishment as an executioner.

The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. Ibid.

Have you ever seen somebody lose control? You can tell them, stop, stop, and they can’t control themselves; they will do it just the same. God will no longer hold the winds and the passions will be a relentless fire.

The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God’s hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty. Ibid

You want to study the fall of Jerusalem, you want to see there the ladies with their babies. What is wrong? They didn’t go to war, did they? What about all these lovely people that are sitting in this congregation; if self will continue to vent and control, what will happen? It will be the same thing that happened in Jerusalem. God cannot protect; we will be consumed one of another. What did the mothers do with their babies? They consumed them. These are phenomenal revelations.

The Saviour’s prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God’s mercy and trampled upon His law. Dark are the records of human misery that earth has witnessed during its long centuries of crime. The heart sickens, and the mind grows faint in contemplation. Terrible have been the results of rejecting the authority of Heaven. But a scene yet darker is presented in the revelations of the future. The records of the past,–the long procession of tumults, conflicts, and revolutions, the “battle of the warrior . . . with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood” (Isaiah 9:5),–what are these, in contrast with the terrors of that day when the restraining Spirit of God shall be wholly withdrawn from the wicked, no longer to hold in check the outburst of human passion and satanic wrath! The world will then behold, as never before, the results of Satan’s rule. {GC 36.2}

Isaiah 26:11 LORD, [when] thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: [but] they shall see, and be ashamed for [their] envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them. 12 LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

I thank God for that hope. According to verse 12 we see an escape from this consuming harvest. I want us to conclude with the reality of a passion uncontrolled that will not surrender and the way it will pan out at the very end and yet, what God is prepared to do to help us so we will not be consumed at that consummation. Remember what we just read in Isaiah 26:12, that all our works were done by God, not of self, by God.

Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure. 14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

Isn’t that what self does? It doesn’t suit me therefore I will dispute it. In the Lord’s work as the Lord works with us, He will send us teachers and workers according to His choice and they’re going to tell us things that are not according to our ways. I am going to argue with God if self is going to continue to exercise itself because the Lord is sending His servants to give us meat in due season and we see the servant instead of the Lord.

Have you ever been upset with me with what I have said and communicated? Have you ever argued with me? I tell you very honestly, I do not preach myself, I do not preach what I think, I preach only what I with trembling dependence receive from the Lord, that which was taught by our Adventist fathers. If you don’t like it, don’t talk to me, talk to God about it.

The fact is that God is merciful to us with self so predominantly sown and exercised. You know how it feels, how hard it is to stop the impulses, but what is this beautiful statement? While I am counselled to conquer self, can I do it? As I look ahead to the future, if I don’t surrender myself entirely to God, what future do I have? I only have self and its consuming fire. That is the way it is, but God is doing His work with us as we surrender to Him. All our works will be done in Him and by Him. The work of God in us is beautifully conveyed in Ephesians. This is our hope; this is to be our focus.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Not of self works; which we have handled.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship,

Now comes the important point:

Ephesians 2:10 …created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Created in Christ Jesus

Jesus our brother. As we open our hearts to the atonement of Jesus, if we accept the fact that He really did experience my flesh; that He really did struggle with the enmity within the human being; He is my brother. He knows the temptations and as I permit Him to display before me His amazing sacrifice for myself, then God is creating in me a softened heart to crucify self to be prepared to let it take its course sowing according to the Spirit who takes of Christ and shows it unto me. What in reality is this? John the Baptist is speaking:

Matthew 3:10 And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

What is that? As the message of God’s wonderful grace is given, it is an axe that cuts at the root of the tree; it’s an axe that destroys self, but if self doesn’t want it, look what God did with the Jews; the axe was laid at the root of the fig tree and that was the end but what happened? When you cut a fig tree off at the root, what happens? Little suckers come up again and that is what happened didn’t it? The Jews are there now because self does not die unless you surrender all to God and God will kill it if you let Him.

This is a perfect picture of the demonstration of how man will destroy himself if he doesn’t keep on destroying the self.

We must present the principles of truth, and let them work upon the hearts of the people. {ML 265.2}

What are we to do? What am I to do? Present the principles of truth and then get out of the way. Don’t let self interfere. Don’t do it to each other. We do it all the time; self does it all the time. I see it happening amongst us all the time. We don’t leave each other alone. We are not to comment upon each other’s failings here or there. Present the principles of truth, and let them work upon the hearts of the people. Don’t let self interfere.

We may pick the leaves from a tree as often as we please, but this will not cause the tree to die; the next season the leaves will come out again as thick as before. But strike the ax at the root of the tree, and not only will the leaves fall off of themselves, but the tree will die. Those who accept the truth, in the love of it, will die to the world, and will become meek and lowly in heart like their divine Lord. Ibid.

Meek and lowly in heart like their divine Lord. Self is dead; self is crucified daily.

Just as soon as the heart is right, the dress, the conversation, the life, will be in harmony with the Word of God. We all need to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. May He help us to plant our feet firmly upon the platform of eternal truth. Ibid

Let the tree of self be cut down at the roots and when it wants to shoot another tree from the roots, simply nip its little suckers by total surrender to God. May God help us not to be among those who will be consumed at the consummation.

Amen.