John Thiel mp3
We continue with another effort to magnify the Lord which is very important for us because we need the magnification of the Lord to fill our minds with something that should crowd out all negativities. Is it true that there are a lot of negative thoughts that crowd in upon our minds? Do we need to get rid of those by a powerful influx of thoughts that will eclipse or replace the negative thoughts? What is the importance of dealing with the holy and to engage in holy thought?
The importance of the truth and the study of His word
As His goodness, His mercy, and His love are dwelt upon, clearer and still clearer will be the perception of truth; higher, holier, the desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought is transformed by intercourse with God through the study of His Word. Truth is so large, so far-reaching, so deep, so broad, that self is lost sight of. The heart is softened and subdued into humility, kindness, and love. FLB 223.3
We don’t see the importance of truth unless we meditate and let our minds be occupied with the goodness, the mercy, and the love of God.
What thoughts are lodged in your mind?
Are they positive, enjoyable thoughts or are they negative thoughts and feelings? There is an atmosphere that is generated by our thoughts. If my thoughts are not holy and upon the beauty of Jesus, then everything surrounding me takes an atmosphere of dank coldness and miserable negativity. It’s an important thing to realise that what you are thinking in your mind creates the atmosphere that surrounds you. Your face, your body language will give you away. If you’re in a happy state of mind, your face is aglow with smiling and joy. If your thoughts are negative, you will have a glum face that is putting on a front and it can be seen. As Jesus’ followers and His witnesses; those whose mind is full of Him – will diffuse an atmosphere that people will feel. The atmosphere of you as a Christian.
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
What is in your affectionate mind activity from the heart? It will come out, it cannot be hidden. If my mind is affected by negative thoughts, out of the abundance of those negative thoughts will come forth in my language, the features of my face and everything else. It’s an atmosphere.
Of the abundance of the heart the mouth communicates.
As we saw in last week’s sermon, when Isaiah saw the throne of God, he was smitten and said I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. He spoke out of the abundance of his heart and he realised as he was beholding the throne of God and God’s glory, that there was in his heart a great dearth of that which he had now seen and he needed to be touched with the coal from the altar which is Jesus. Jesus comes and touches our life and as He does that, the heart is filled with what He is doing in us and it can’t be helped but to come forth out of our lips.
Romans 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
God puts His covenant through the gospel, into our hearts and then it would be fitted in our lips. It generates a mind activity which will spill out in our words and expressions.
Romans 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
By fitting the beautiful things of God in our hearts, they will be fitted in our lips so that out of our heart our mouth will speak. This is irrefutable reality that if my mind is not enraptured by the beauty of Jesus in my life, it will show. People in the world can detect false Christianity because it isn’t bubbling from the heart. But when the person is overwhelmed with the beauty of God in their life, it shows out and people can see this is genuine.
The heart that is occupied with holy thought, which is meditation upon the beauty of Jesus Christ and on His goodness, not just a quick thought about goodness but a magnification of His goodness, His mercy, His love. When I let negative thoughts take over, holy thoughts are erased and negativity gathers momentum inside of my mind. This is a reality for everyone.
I was once so overwhelmed by the negativities that were in my mind, that I walked out of a divine service. The Lord had to send me a magpie to tell me directly look up! Singing to God’s glory, I look up and fill my mind with His glory. Negative thoughts are to be erased by filling your mind with the glory of God. In the last study we meditated about the law of the Ten Commandments and what created the negative thoughts and the negative experiences, the condemnation.
Galatians 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
The law was our school master which the Spirit of Prophecy revealed to us that a school master condemns to punishment. When you are convicted by the law of God that you are a terrible sinner, the law is the one that brings you to that understanding and is a school master condemning to punishment.
Galatians 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
The law brings us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under the school master.
Rejection of the 1888 message
The 1888 Message was not received by the leadership of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Why? Sister White gave the answer and said that they did not believe that the school master was the Ten Commandment law as well as the ceremonial law. They only believed that it was the ceremonial law. The verse in Galatians says that after faith comes, we are no longer under the school master. They said that we are still under the law and it can’t be the law of the ten commandments. It can only be the ceremonial law. They rejected the message that was being taught at the conference, that the Ten Commandments were the school master that leads us to Christ. Then when Jesus Christ has affected the heart, by His wonderful sacrifice on the cross, we are no longer under the school master.
Illustration of a woman caught in adultery.
The person who has felt to the core the utter trauma of executionary condemnation of the law when he meets Jesus at the cross or in Gethsemane, meets compassion. He meets Jesus in the atonement with us suffering our guilt and our condemnation. Speaking of the woman caught in adultery, when she was taken violently and brought before Jesus, Sister White writes the following:
The woman had stood before Jesus, cowering with fear. His words, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone,” had come to her as a death sentence. She dared not lift her eyes to the Saviour’s face, but silently awaited her doom. In astonishment she saw her accusers depart speechless and confounded; then those words of hope fell upon her ear, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” Her heart was melted, and she cast herself at the feet of Jesus, sobbing out her grateful love, and with bitter tears confessing her sins. DA 462.1
This was to her the beginning of a new life, a life of purity and peace, devoted to the service of God. In the uplifting of this fallen soul, Jesus performed a greater miracle than in healing the most grievous physical disease; He cured the spiritual malady which is unto death everlasting. This penitent woman became one of His most steadfast followers. With self-sacrificing love and devotion she repaid His forgiving mercy. DA 462.2
Here is the illustration of a mind that is quavering under condemnation by the school master and expecting no future, nothing but oppressive darkness. The woman expected to get the first stone because she looked at these pharisees as men without sin and there is Jesus in that oppressive darkness, providing a beautiful resolution to the problem.
The problem with Laodicea
Revelation 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
Can Laodicea come to the same experience as the woman caught in adultery? Laodicea cannot understand. The woman knew it, Laodicea doesn’t. Because it doesn’t, it cannot appreciate this wonderful healing balm.
Only he who sees his own sinfulness can discern the preciousness of the Saviour. DA 494.4
Only those who know for themselves in what a disastrous condition of spiritual malady they are, can be cured by Jesus. A ‘spiritual malady which is unto death everlasting’. Those who feel no hope for the future and who know their own condition, can appreciate the beauty of positive thoughts and the true appreciation of goodness and the mercy and the love of God. That’s what must be dwelt upon. It can only be appreciated if we see ourselves as we really are. Therefore, the person with his negative hopeless condition who is illuminated with God’s magnanimous nature and believes that He gave His only begotten Son, can have an experience that was etched into this poor woman’s life. It’s a love to God that never leaves you. It fills you through and through with a determination to live for Jesus and Jesus alone because of what He has done for your soul.
After finding Jesus, there is no more a need for the school master
The school master had done its job for her. Now she found a relationship with Jesus that was so precious, that she did not need the school master anymore. We are no longer in need of the law when after the law has condemned us to death, we find Jesus as our personal Saviour just as she found Him.
2 Corninthians 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
This is the aftermath of the school master; the law that brings us to Jesus and we come to this beautiful experience of hope that is provided for us in Jesus as this woman felt it.
Once the sufferings of Jesus in the flesh and His condemnation hanging helplessly on the cross becomes vivid in your own experience, we have no more need of the school master because it has done its job. First we have come face to face with the law and its condemnation. Then we have come face to face with Jesus in dealing with our problem to such a depth that we see Him at the cross and now it has done its job. We move on with a new outlook and with a relationship with Jesus that nothing can destroy because it has been etched into our system.
A Gift
Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 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. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
It is a gift that comes to us because we see Jesus. Before that, those laws condemned us. Now that Jesus comes into our life, we are no longer in need of the condemnatory school master. We are now so relieved that it’s been etched in our life that He is everything to us and we no longer depend upon the law to condemn us. The law has already done its job. Now that the law is fulfilled in our life and we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, just as this woman caught in adultery decided to be a follower of Jesus doing everything that He wants her to do, her heart has become one with God because the condemnation of the law has brought her face to face with a loving merciful God that would forgive her and not condemn her. She loved Him and love governed her life, not the law.
A life governed with love, but not a free ticket to do whatever you like.
When our life is governed by the love of God, it is God that works in us to do those works in Jesus Christ as this woman discovered. But that goodness in not give you a free ticket to do whatever you like. What is it designed to do?
Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
At the time of the 1888 message, the church leaders were afraid that if they teach this message, the people won’t care about the Ten Commandments anymore. That was a blind spot in their mind and in their way of thinking. The school master having done its work now through Jesus Christ, is a totally new life. God’s goodness brings about a condition that this woman had and that you are to have in your heart of a repentant contrite state. You will remain repentant and contrite once you have met Jesus like that.
The announcement and the pronouncement of God to you and me who have come face to face with His amazing goodness exploring, meditating and dwelling upon it, fills our heart with contrition.
The person who lives with God in a high and lofty place is of a humble contrite heart
Isaiah 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
God’s goodness leads you to contrition as it did the woman sobbing out her contrite humbled heart and rejoicing in the hope that Jesus had given her. That contrite heart continues with you for the rest of your life and you are going to live with God in the high and lofty place.
How do you come to that humble, contrite heart? By God’s goodness
Isaiah 57:19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.
God has started the work by bringing us to a contrite humble spirit. It will continue and do its work. Creating in the lips that which the call did to Isaiah’s lips, lips expressing a heart overwhelmed with the amazing beauty and the love of God, it will be applicable to your own condition. When your mind is so occupied, it continues in the path of contrition and repentance which heals your soul. God’s amazing thought, He dwells in a high and lofty place with a sinner like you. Now the heart is filled with holy thoughts which creates an atmosphere, the product of the lips and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
The Source
The mind beholds this amazing reality just as this woman experienced; the amazing goodness of God etched in her sense. She became one of the most ardent followers of Jesus Christ. We can imagine what her mind exercises over the rest of her life.
Rest yourself wholly in the hands of Jesus. Contemplate His great love, and while you meditate upon His self-denial, His infinite sacrifice made in our behalf in order that we should believe in Him, your heart will be filled with holy joy, calm peace, and indescribable love. As we talk of Jesus, as we call upon Him in prayer, our confidence that He is our personal, loving Saviour will strengthen, and His character will appear more and more lovely…. We may enjoy rich feasts of love, and as we fully believe that we are His by adoption, we may have a foretaste of heaven. Wait upon the Lord in faith. The Lord draws out the soul in prayer, and gives us to feel His precious love. We have a nearness to Him, and can hold sweet communion with Him. We obtain distinct views of His tenderness and compassion, and our hearts are broken and melted with contemplation of the love that is given to us. We feel indeed an abiding Christ in the soul…. Our peace is like a river, wave after wave of glory rolls into the heart, and indeed we sup with Jesus and He with us. SD 311.2
We can’t contemplate His great love if we don’t see our sinfulness. We need to meditate upon His self-denial that He gave up heaven to partake of our sins and die with our sin the death that you were meant to die. I rejoice that Jesus has come and shown me the way.
Our peace is as a river. Wave after wave of glory rolling into our heart because wave after wave of our sinfulness is brought in connection with His great love for us. Wave after wave as our sinful flesh plays havoc with our mind and wants to destroy it. Our love of Jesus comes flooding back into our mind and wave after wave brings us to tears at the foot of the cross.
You can’t know this experience unless you are fully aware of your sinfulness
Sometimes the Lord must take us over the ground again and again until finally we see it. In Alcoholics Anonymous when trying to help an alcoholic, the person hears everyone’s stories. When the stories don’t make a special impact on him, he disappears and they know well that he is going to drink some more and have some more miserable experiences until he comes flying back. Because he finally realises how sinful he really is. It’s the same for us. We must keep going back to our negative experiences again and again until we discover our negative reality to such a degree that we can see the real Jesus.
The details and promises that are to occupy our minds.
This Psalm shows the details that are to occupy our mind in regard to our true condition after the law has done its job as a school master.
Psalm 103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6 The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. 7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. 8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. 10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. 14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. 17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; 18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
The Lord is a pitying Father. Can any negative thoughts remain in our mind as we remember all these things? This is what the Lord wants us to do; He wants us to occupy our mind with these sorts of things and then out of the abundance of the heart our mouth will speak. Next time your thoughts and feelings are stirred by Satanthe accuser of the brethren, remember that he wants to take away all these thoughts of God’s mercy and love. You then must remember these details and promises also looking at prophecy.
2 Peter 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Beholding prophecy arises the day star in our hearts where we see those prophecies taking place in our life and in the world around us which magnifies Jesus to us. The study of Daniel 11 manifests such a glory of how God overrules all the affairs of the nations. When we meditate upon these, how can we think negative thoughts?
Conclusion
It is my heart’s prayer that we decide to shut out every negative suggestion. Whether it comes from Satan working inside of us, or the flesh, or the world around us. Those who do not know how to keep their eyes focused on Jesus, will talk and think about everything else but Him. Put a deliberation into your life that only the joy and the fellowship of Jesus Christ will be in your own life and in the life of His church. Do what the Apostle Paul said;’ I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ‘
Memory’s hall should be hung with sacred pictures, with views of Jesus, with lessons of His truth, with revealings of His matchless charms. If memory’s hall were thus furnished, we would not look upon our lot as intolerable. We would not talk of the faults of others. Our souls would be full of Jesus and His love. We would not desire to dictate to the Lord the way that He should lead. We would love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. When the joy of the Lord is in the soul, you will not be able to repress it; you will want to tell others of the treasure you have found; you will speak of Jesus and His matchless charms. We should devote all to Him. Our minds should be educated to dwell upon those things that will glorify God; and if our mental powers are dedicated to God, our talents will improve, and we shall have more and more ability to render to the Master. We shall become channels of light to others. HP 123.3
Remember the Lord says that ‘His thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are His ways our ways,’ and we cannot dictate to Him what we expect and how He should lead. By following these thoughts, we become channels of light to others – not channels of darkness. It is my sincere prayer that this once and for all takes hold of us and as soon as a negative comes to your ears or to your mind, remember to replace it with the thoughts of heaven only and quickly chase out those negative thoughts. I thank God that this does work for me and I will refuse to take on anything of a negative nature to depress and overcome me. I have decided to follow Jesus. He is the one who takes away all guilt.
May God help us to practice it.
Amen
