Dealing with Impure Thoughts and Suggestions
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guiltless and cherish sin in the sight of God? As you contemplate the
matter in the light which shines from the cross of Christ, will not sin
appear too mean, too perilous, too fearful, to indulge in?
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Spotless and Undefiled Until the End—Sinful corruptions! How
sinful at any time, but how much more so now, when standing upon the
very borders of the eternal world! I speak to my people. If you draw
close to Jesus and seek to adorn your profession by a well-ordered
life and godly conversation, your feet will be kept from straying into
forbidden paths. If you will only watch, continually watch, unto prayer;
if you will do everything as if you were in the immediate presence of
God, you will be saved from yielding to temptation and may hope to
be kept pure, spotless, and undefiled unto the end.
If you hold the beginning of your confidence firm unto the end,
all your way will be established in God, and what grace has begun
glory shall crown in the kingdom of our God. “The fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance: against such there is no law” [
Galatians 5:22, 23
]. If
Christ be within us, we shall crucify the flesh with the affections and
lusts.—
Manuscript 9, 1880
.
Purification of the Heart—By accepting Christ as his personal
Saviour, man is brought into the same close relation to God, and enjoys
His special favor, as does His own beloved Son. He is honored and
glorified and intimately associated with God, his life being hid with
Christ in God. Oh, what love, what wondrous love!
This is my teaching of moral purity. The opening of the blackness
of impurity will not be one half as efficacious in uprooting sin as will
the presentation of these grand and ennobling themes. The Lord has
not given to women a message to assail men and charge them with
their impurity and incontinence. They create sensuality in place of
uprooting it. The Bible, and the Bible alone, has given the true lessons
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upon purity. Then preach the Word.
Christ, the Propitiation for Sin—Such is the grace of God, such
the love wherewith He hath loved us, even when we were dead in
trespasses and sins, enemies in our minds by wicked works, serving
divers lusts and pleasures, the slaves of debased appetites and passion,
servants of sin and Satan. What depth of love is manifested in Christ,
as He becomes the propitiation for our sins. Through the ministration
of the Holy Spirit souls are led to find forgiveness of sins.