FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 20
CHRIST UPLIFTED: ‘BEHOLD THE SON OF MAN’ – NOT THE ‘MAN OF SIN’! (Part 7)
“Instead of recognizing [Nicodemus’] salutation [that Jesus must be a ‘teacher sent of God’], Jesus bent His eyes upon the speaker, as if reading his very soul. In His infinite wisdom He saw before Him a SEEKER AFTER TRUTH. He knew the object of this visit, and with a desire to DEEPEN the conviction already resting upon His listener’s mind, He came directly to the point, saying solemnly, yet kindly, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be BORN FROM ABOVE, he CANNOT SEE the kingdom of God.’ John 3: 3, margin.
“Nicodemus had come to the Lord thinking to enter into a DISCUSSION with Him, but Jesus laid bare the FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES OF TRUTH. He said to Nicodemus, It is NOT THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE you need so much as SPIRITUAL REGENERATION. You need not have your CURIOSITY satisfied, but to have a NEW HEART. You must receive a NEW LIFE FROM ABOVE before you can appreciate HEAVENLY THINGS.
Until this CHANGE takes place, making all things NEW, it will result in NO SAVING GOOD for you to DISCUSS with Me My authority or My mission.’” – “The Desire of Ages,” E. G. White, pp. 170, 171, Pacific Press Publishing Asso., New Edition, Third Printing, April 1950.
Any Bible study entered into, whether daytime or nighttime, with a group or individually will not avail spiritually if:
(1) one is merely driven by carnal curiosity instead of desire to know the truth as it is in Jesus. It was such curiosity that led Eve to approach the forbidden tree in Eden
(2) seeking only to acquire theoretical knowledge instead of the mind and will of God
(3) attempts to comprehend spiritual things with a carnal mind and refuses to seek first and receive a new spiritual life, heart, and mind.
There is no “saving good” to be obtained in “discussing” or “reasoning together” Bible truth with such individuals, beginning with ourselves! “Having the form of godliness but denying its power” to transform the carnal mind to the spiritual mind, the “old man” to a “new man in Christ Jesus” will prevent the Christian from “making his calling and election sure.”
(To be continued). Bless all, NMF.