John Thiel, mp3
Jeremiah 8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
As you were singing the hymn that we have just been singing, there is material in these words that are important for us to comprehend.
“Breathe on me, breath of God,
fill me with life and you,
so that I may love what thou dost love
and do what thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me until my heart is pure,
until with thee I will one will to do and
to endure.”
The whole hymn depicts an understanding that we need to truly embrace that we will permit God to change us as it said in that third verse until this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine. The singing of these hymns are often sung from an emotional standpoint. But while emotions are relevant, yet we need to understand what these words are really depicting to be able to understand what this is all about.
God is not a magician. He works intelligently with us. He speaks to us and we are asking Him to breathe upon us what? The Holy spirit that is the teacher of righteousness according to righteousness. As we pursue this series of meditations in each divine service, if you will scan through my sermons on Sabbath Sermons website, you will come across a sermon (The Theatre of His Grace), I have preached some time ago of the church being a hospital for sin -sick sinners.
There are other descriptions in the Bible of the church. I have considered four of them, four descriptions. One are the words of Jesus in John 10 verses 14 to 16. Here, Jesus tells us that His church is the sheepfold, a fold for sheep to be cared for and protected.
John 10:24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
The church of Christ on earth is amid the moral darkness of a disloyal world, which is trampling upon the law of Jehovah. But their Redeemer, who has purchased their ransom with the price of His own precious blood, has made every provision that His church shall be a transformed body, illumined with Light of the world, possessing the glory of Emmanuel. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, shining through His church, will gather into His fold every lost, straying sheep who will come unto Him and find refuge in Him. They will find peace and light and joy in Him who is peace and righteousness forever.13 OHC 164.2
Another description of His church:
Jeremiah 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
God’s church, God’s house of Israel, is a potter’s house where God is forming a vessel of honour.
Men will have to experience a daily conversion, in order that they may be working agents, who can be molded and fashioned as clay is molded and fashioned by the hands of the potter. Workers are to learn daily lessons in the school of Christ; for it is not your mold that God would have upon the characters of the church members. Give God a chance to impress minds, and to place His mold upon the character, and upon the church. 3MR 9.1
There you have the church; a place where God is moulding and fashioning. a instrument, a vessel, which is God, which is our character. He’s moulding and fashioning our characters. That’s the second description of the church. One, a fold, a sheepfold. Two, a potter’s house, where He is moulding and fashioning the pot.
Malachi 3:3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
Here we see that the church is a place where God is purifying and polishing and producing gems. Beautiful gold and silver being purified.
The mighty cleaver of truth is separating from the world all who will accept Christ as a personal Saviour. These God brings into His workshop, and day by day with hammer and chisel He works to remove their rough edges, preparing them for a place in His kingdom. Great changes will be made in those who are taken out of the world to shine in the courts of the Lord. There is to be an inward transformation, the results of which are revealed in the outward life. All that the Christian says or does is to show that he is preparing for a better world. Every step is to be a step of advance…. 9MR 372.4
Can you see here that the people who believe in Jesus are brought into His workshop, a place where He is purifying the silver and the gold or polishing and cutting gems so that they might, that great changes will be done so that they could have a transformation.
The teacher may understand many things in regard to the physical universe; he may know about the structure of animal life, the discoveries of natural science, the inventions of mechanical art; but he cannot be called educated, he is not fitted for his work as an instructor of the youth, unless he has in his own soul a knowledge of God and of Christ. He cannot be a true educator until he is himself a learner in the school of Christ, receiving an education from the divine Instructor. CT 65.3
If we are in the workshop or shop for gems and gold and silver.
Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
Psalms 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Here is a place where our diseases, our spiritual diseases are to be healed in a place where God is the physician.
Psalms 147:2 The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. 3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
We are wounded because of sin, and God is the physician where in the place of His church He is doing the work of restoration. Just like in the other descriptions in reference to sheep or to gemstones or to pottery this is all similar kind of descriptions.
During ages of spiritual darkness the church of God has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, the pure doctrines of heaven have been unfolding within its borders. Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard. It is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to transform hearts. AA 12.1
Whether the institution is a sheepfold or a potter’s house or a workshop for purifying of silver and gold and gemstones or a hospital, it is a place of care, of formation, purification and polishing of restoration of spiritual health. This is God’s church, and it leaves us without any shadow of confusion that God’s church is to be a true institution to achieve God’s ends as the shepherd as the potter as the one who is chiselling.
Formation development healing in the hospital. These are all metaphoric descriptions but describing something that is God’s intention working in the church. The actual design of His church to produce and form and heal a people, bringing a people to a beautiful polished gem, to a healthy, vibrant person. Here are the instruments, these instrumentalities in the church.
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ
Can you see what the work in the church is? To bring about perfection. To bring about the edifice. A sin-sick person is to be dealt with in the hospital to bring him to that. A gemstone that is not yet cut and polished is to be dealt with in the church according to this description, to be an edifice, to be a pure people. Coming back to the concept of the church as a hospital, with all those other descriptions as well, a pottery that isn’t yet perfect, that has to be perfected, a gemstone, what do we expect then if we are in God’s true church? If there are people in a hospital, what do we expect in the membership?
Wouldn’t you expect sick patients that are there to be restored by the treatment of the physician or in the workshop, rough stones tumbling together rubbing shoulders together. What do you expect? Do you expect the perfect people? No, they’re there to be perfected. There are many people who expect the church to be a perfect people and they get disappointed if they don’t see perfect people. Well, they’re making a big mistake. The people in the church are not perfect.
Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His supreme regard. The world is a workshop in which, through the cooperation of human and divine agencies, Jesus is making experiments by His grace and divine mercy upon human hearts.428 CCh 240.3
We’re in a hospital where our hearts are being operated on. We might be going through a heart transplant. That’s what the Scripture says, isn’t it? I’m going to give you a new heart. It’s an operation. You’re going to see people who have got faulty hearts that are being transformed in the church. This next statement is very important because we want to get it clear because many people misread Sr White’s writings here that Church enfeebled and defective needing to be reproved warden God is the only object upon earth which God bestows supreme regard. Therefore they accept this statement to say it’s a faulty ministry but this is not what Sister White is meaning. She’s talking about the people in the church that are faulty, that are imperfect. Follow the next paragraph:
Superior to All
God has a distinct people, a church on earth, second to none, but superior to all in their facilities to teach the truth, to vindicate the law of God. God has divinely appointed agencies—men whom He is leading, who have borne the heat and burden of the day, who are cooperating with heavenly instrumentalities to advance the kingdom of Christ in our world. Let all unite with these chosen agents, and be found at last among those who have the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus.429 CCh 240.4
She says his church is defective and enfeebled, but God, while He has this defective, enfeebled people, yet the church is second to none superior to all in their facilities to teach the truth. Is the church in its faulty teaching God’s church? The defective and enfeebled state is not in its teachings, it is in its members that are defective and enfeebled but the ministry of the church, the ministry of the church is not to be defective.
The ministry of the church is superior in all its facilities to not be defective. To have to have an operation, we go and trust the hospital that I’m not going to get an infection there. If the church is the hospital then it better be a place where I’m not going to be infected by Satan’s confusions. We are to find the hospital of pure facilities where the true remedies for the cure of transgression can be found. We need to be in a hospital where I’m going to be cured, not infected by any faulty ministry.
Can we get the picture? Here are some biblical guideposts that we want to read by which we can see, yes, it must be a pure ministry, a pure doctrine, a truth only, no error. Not a mixed in what you are hearing. Nothing. This is God’s church.
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
We are not to be in a church where there are crafty men confusing your mind. We are no longer to be tossed around by every wind of doctrine. Can’t we see this in the ranks of churches of today? Every wind of doctrine, they all claim they’re right, but they’re not in harmony with pure doctrine of the Bible.
Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Not only speaking the truth but speaking the truth in love. The church, with all its descriptions as given there, is there as a pure instrumentality, a pure institution that produces the desired benefit. That we may speak the truth in love, the church that is the place of a hospital or a place of purification and polishing. What is the church?
1 Timothy 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Not many winds of doctrine, no. Pure truth. That is God’s church, the pillar and ground of the truth. Oh, if we would take the words and recognise them and don’t let anybody confuse you. The church must be pure, not the members but the ministry, the doctrines, the facilities, they must be pure. You can’t go to a church that is impure in its ministry and get healing there. You’re not going to get it. You’re going to get confused with every wind of doctrine. Read Jude 3. This is now the connecting link to what we know of the Apostolic church, the church that Jesus said; ‘I’m going to have others that are going to join this fold’. What are the ministry in action doing?
Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Sister White’s time and must be to the end.
God’s workers today constitute the connecting link between the former workers, the church of history, and the church that is to be called out from the world and prepared to meet their Lord. The tide of spiritual life is to flow through the appointed channels, as in the history of the past. From age to age. …it to those who sit in darkness. All the excellencies that have come through the belief of the truth from past ages to the present time, are to be treated with the utmost respect. SpTA07 11.1
Are you picking something up here? You wonder why I’m a bit fastidious here when it comes to doctrine because that’s exactly what I’m told to do. I am to content earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints and as it said; ‘that the excellencies that have come through the belief of the truth from past ages to the present time are to be treated with the utmost respect. ‘
Let not the truth entrusted to our keeping, lose its force and power through our careless misuse of the body or mind. SpTA07 11.1
Contend earnestly for the faith. This is the church today that must be in connection with the faithful church of the past. For us today, we must have a clear testimony. What was it there in Revelation 12:17 that Satan is making war with whom? The remnant of the woman’s seed, which what? Which keep the commandments of God and have that testimony of Jesus. The pure testimony of Jesus, yes? What was the testimony of Jesus according to Revelation 19:10 where John the revelator was going to bow in front and worship this person? He said, “No, don’t do that. I am of your fellow brethren who have the testimony of Jesus that been given to the world in these last days supported by the testimony of Jesus, the Spirit of Prophecy. It’s called the testimony of Jesus. We need to be in a church that proclaims the purity that the testimony of Jesus communicates. Not cherry-picking certain statements and ignoring others. Sister White was talked to by Jesus and what does he say?
“Be not afraid of man, for My shield shall protect you. It is not you that speaketh: it is the Lord that giveth the messages of warning and reproof. Never deviate from the truth under any circumstances. Give the light I shall give you. The messages for these last days shall be written in books, and shall stand immortalized, to testify against those who have once rejoiced in the light, but who have been led to give it up because of the seductive influences of evil.” 1SM 32.3
Aren’t we not seeing this in the ranks of modern Adventism today? They have given up under the seductive influences of evil. They have once rejoiced in the pure light, but now have given it up Here or there on one point or another, we’ve had some discussions on this, certain doctrines that used to be taught are no longer taught. The sanctuary in its detail the King of the North, the subject of the sealing message. So many doctrines that have been left to trail in the dirt that are so necessary and as we are brought to this understanding, that those writings are in books to do what? To stand as a witness against those people so that you can find your way of the false messengers of today through the Spirit of Prophecy.
Remember our subject is to be under the physician to cure us from sin sickness. Among these doctrines that are the pure doctrines that were given throughout the years, there is one doctrine that is the central truth around which all the other truths circulate. All the other truths are salvation, but there’s a central one. What’s the central one?
The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light which streams from the cross of Calvary, and in connection with the wondrous, central truth of the Saviour’s atonement. Those who study the Redeemer’s wonderful sacrifice grow in grace and knowledge. 5BC 1137.7
What are we reading here? Whatever doctrines are being taught they Must all be correct and the central truth, the central truth of all those other correct truths is the atonement of Jesus. What is this central truth actually designed to do? What is this central truth in effect? Remember the central truth is Christ’s atonement?
The atonement of Christ is not a mere skillful way to have our sins pardoned; it is a divine remedy for the cure of transgression and the restoration of spiritual health. It is the Heaven-ordained means by which the righteousness of Christ may be not only upon us but in our hearts and characters. 6BC 1074.2
Isn’t that what the church is meant to be, the hospital? And it’s got to have the pure central truth, together with all the other truths, no error, all correctly connected with the central truth which is the remedy for the cure of transgression and the restoration of spiritual health. what was the title of our sermon? God’s Remedial Institution. The remedial institution must proclaim all the pure doctrines with the central one, which is the cure for transgression, which is the atonement of Jesus. The pastors, the teachers, etc. must be fully alert and they must be right on the truth. Their work is here brought out very clearly.
The work of the gospel minister is “to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.” [Ephesians 3:9.] If one entering upon this work chooses the least self-sacrificing part, contenting himself with preaching, and leaving the work of personal ministry for some one else to do, his labors will not be acceptable to God. Souls for whom Christ died are perishing for want of well-directed personal labor; and he has mistaken his calling who, having entered the ministry, is unwilling to do the personal work that the care of the flock demands. GW 186.1-
I want you to think carefully about this. A true minister in God’s true church is going to do personal work. If he wants to do personal work for you as a member of God’s church, don’t regard it as unnecessary.
The minister must be instant in season and out of season, ready to seize and improve every opportunity to further the work of God. To be “instant in season” is to be alert to the privileges of the house and hour of worship, and to the times when men are conversing on topics of religion. And to be instant “out of season” is to be ready, when at the fireside, in the field, by the wayside, in the market, to turn the minds of men, in a suitable manner, to the great themes of the Bible, with tender, fervent spirit urging upon them the claims of God. [Psalm 126:6.]. GW 186.2
Here in the church, in the divine service, that’s in season. There’s another quote that says, “When the preacher has preached the sermon, his work has only just begun.” He is to help the flock to understand what the sermon he was about. He is to go and do personal labour. If you find that you haven’t been visited by a minister, you know that that minister is not a minister of God. A minister is to visit you, to care for you. This is to be expected. Today this is the most awkward task that I have found because I’ve taken this very seriously. It’s the most awkward task because to go and do that personal work today people say I can do it myself; I don’t need you. I’m not going to lean on the arm of flesh. That’s what you get, that’s what the minister gets met with today. I can find my own way. I don’t need you. You’ve just preached the sermon, now it’s my business. Personal work. I’ve been had to be so careful with this work because of the way that the modern mentality is today that if you get that kind of ministry, this person is trying to swing you around to his opinion and I’ve had to be so careful. That’s why in certain places I have not been able to do this to certain people because of this terrible twist of the modern deception of Satan, that true pastoring is not just preaching, not just conducting the meetings, but personal work.
It’s God’s order. What did I read there? That a minister who doesn’t do that, I read it again just to get it into focus. It said there that… from the time of the early church through to the end. Members are faulty and in need of application of the remedy. But the ministry must be correct. The doctrines must be pure. I hope and pray that this answers the many queries that are often held in the ranks of modern Christianity and Adventism today.
My God, add His blessing to these understandings in Jesus’ name, Amen.
