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Your Participation in the Personal Sealing Work

By John Thiel, mp3

Scripture reading: 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.

This is a very personal message; it is not just a general subject, it is me and you. It is something that we need to understand so that in what we have studied in reference to the twelve tribes we may not only see ourselves in those tribes, but that we might actually engage in the purification exercises that are required to be among the 144,000, rather than just know about them. We need to be engaged in the sealing work. As we read in Revelation 7, these 144,000 come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. We want to really understand this as we are to participate in this purification. Washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb, what does this really mean in practice? Read the rest of this entry

7. The Delusion of Immunity to the Flesh

By John Thiel, Removing Delusions and Fallacies Series, mp3

Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they [do it] to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.   

Am I immune to my flesh if I am a truly born again Christian? The object of this series is to remove delusions. This was triggered by an important statement of the Spirit of Prophecy:

Let those who have been deluded give up all their fallacies. The love of Jesus will not endure such rivals. {20MR 307.5} Read the rest of this entry

Christ and the Sin in His Body

Man was created in the image of God. He was given powers of intellect which was just below the angels. They were beautiful; they were perfect in their symmetry. Everywhere they looked, they thought of God and saw God’s words and as they thought of God, they grew like God. Hence they reflected His image. We know they were clothed in garments of light. However there came one day a serpent. We all know the story well. We read of the consequence and we find the condition of man. There are many that deny such realities but it is all here in black and white:

A Fallen Condition

Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; Read the rest of this entry

For What the Law Could Not Do

When the divine Word became at one with humanity, what was the nature of His flesh?

Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

“Through sin the whole human organism is deranged…Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul” -Testimonies for the Churches Vol. 8, p. 312

“What a strange symbol of Christ was that likeness of the serpents which stung them. This symbol was lifted on a pole, and they were to look to it, and be healed. So Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He came as the sin-bearer. . . .” –Sons and Daughters p. 222

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. Read the rest of this entry

Did Jesus Come In Sinful Flesh?

In the year 1900 a fanatical teaching was started in the state of Indiana in the United States. This fanatical teaching was termed the doctrine of holy flesh. Advocates of this movement taught that when Christ passed through the agony of Gethsemane he obtained holy flesh and those who follow Christ by faith in the Gethsemane experience would likewise obtain holy flesh and having obtained physical holiness, they could no more experience corruption and they would not die but be translated to heaven. That was the theory of the holy flesh movement.

2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

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Divine Assurance

By John Thiel, mp3

How much do you sense your need of Jesus?

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

This Scripture illuminates the need of Jesus. Jesus brings to us a wonderful privilege and peace. Peace of what kind? Not as the world giveth. Not the kind of peace that we gain from the lack of happiness that the world can produce but a peace that only God can produce. The peace that Jesus speaks of here is a peace he gives unto you. It’s a peace that is at rest when everything around us is in tumult. I don’t know if you have heard the story of the competition between three artists and the different impressions that these artists had of what really is peace. One artist painted a picture of a family sitting together. The second artist painted a beautiful scene in nature and the third artist painted a very storm-tossed ocean. There in the ocean were rocks and crevices and the waves were beating up against these rocks with great crashing and there in the side of that rock, that huge rock, was a little cave and inside of that cave was a dove with her little ones sitting in the nest. He won the competition because that was a true representation of the peace that only Jesus can bring, a peace amongst troubles and conflicts that surround us. Read the rest of this entry

24. Victory in the Conflict Between the Spirit and the Flesh

By John Thiel, First Angel’s Message, study 24, mp3

The practical experience of the everlasting gospel is an apprenticeship that is a life-time work of sanctification. God varies His training in our apprenticeship according to His permissive and perfect will. We sometimes want things our own way in the sanctification experience so God lets us have our way until we come to the point where we are really suffering and then He says, this is the way I want you to go. As we are living under the three angels’ messages and so close to the end, we need more information so we can hasten our learning experience. To hasten our submission to God’s perfect will instead of His permissive will is required as there is not much time left. We need to understand something about ourselves – our dual nature that we have. Through the plan of salvation we have a dual nature and conflict between our two natures – the spirit and the flesh. Jesus addresses our condition at birth:

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