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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eugene Prewitt

If There Be Any Virtue

Our Father in heaven, I ask that you would help us here this morning, that you would teach us what is true by the gift of your spirit.

This morning I'm going to read you a few statements from the writings of Ellen White.

Our Sabbath school this quarter has been so much about her writings.

And then we're going to have a Bible study.

This is from the book Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 136.

It is the special work of Satan in these last days to take possession of the minds of youth, to corrupt the thoughts and inflame the passions, for he knows that by so doing he can lead to impure actions, and thus all the noble faculties of the mind will become debased, and he can control them to suit his own purposes.

All are free moral agents, and as such, they must train their thoughts to run in the right channel.

The first work of those who would reform is to purify the imagination.

Our meditations should be such as will elevate the mind, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Here is a wide field in which the mind can safely range.

If Satan seeks to turn it, that is the mind, to low and sensual things, bring it back.

When corrupt imaginings seek to gain possession of your mind, flee to the throne of grace and pray for strength from heaven.

By the grace of Christ, it is possible for us to reject impure thoughts.

Jesus will attract the mind, purify the thoughts, and cleanse the heart from every secret sin." It's a beautiful promise, isn't it?

That Jesus will attract the mind to himself, elsewhere she says, like a magnet.

This next statement is from Patriarchs and Prophets, it's page 460.

Yet we have a work to do to resist temptation.

Those who would not fall prey to Satan's devices must guard well the avenues of the soul.

They must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing that which will suggest impure thoughts.

The mind should not be left to wander at random upon every subject that the adversary of souls may suggest.

Gird up the loins of your mind, says the Apostle Peter.

Be sober, not fashioning yourself according to the former lust in your ignorance.

But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of living.

Says Paul, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.

This will require earnest prayer and unceasing watchfulness.

We must be aided by the abiding influence of the Holy Spirit, which will attract the mind upward and habituate it to dwell on pure and holy things.

And we must give diligent study to the word of God, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?

By taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Thy word says the psalmist, have I hidden my heart that I might not sin against thee.

This is from Messages to Young People, page 286.

Dear youth, cease to read the magazines containing stories.

We would do well to clear our houses of all the story magazines and the publications containing ridiculous pictures, representations originated by satanic agencies.

The youth cannot afford to poison their minds with such things.

Let everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ read only that which is true and of eternal value." And the last 1, Sons and Daughters of God, page 107.

We give our time and thought to the trivial and commonplace things of the world and neglect the great interest that pertain to eternal life.

The noble powers of the mind are dwarfed and enfeebled by lack of exercise on themes that are worthy of their concentration.

Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

As we meditate upon the perfections of our divine model we shall desire to become wholly transformed and renewed in the image of His purity.

We are called to come out and be separate from the world, that we may be the sons and daughters of the Most High." Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke, Luke chapter 12.

Luke, chapter 12, and we're looking at verse 33.

Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning.

And you yourselves liken to men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately." From the passage I'd like us just to notice a few things.

If there is an attitude or a mindset that should characterize me, it should be that I'm like a man who is waiting for the Lord.

The name Seventh-day Adventist highlights the idea in this verse.

Adventist should be characterized by this idea.

We should be looking forward to, we should be anticipating Christ's coming.

That should be the theme that controls the way that we live.

And really, the advice in the first verse we read here is still good.

I think if you will try this, if you will take some collection of treasures that you've been saving up for decades perhaps in your home and if you will just sell them and give that money to some charitable need, I think you'll find yourself feeling more free than you felt before you did it.

That there's something about the treasures we have on earth that take our time and our attention.

And when we can be rid of them, it frees up our time and attention for things more noble and interest more important.

And it's this verse, verse 35, that is the theme for our talk this morning.

Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning." The idea of girding up your loins is all through Scripture, and the idea is that You can have so much clothing that hangs down and is long that it slows your progress when you need to be making fast progress.

If you need to run or need to be free, you can't afford to have all of that impeding you.

And Jesus used that as an illustration, let your loins be girded about and your lights burning.

In other words, be ready to make fast progress.

For a long time, this has been 1 of my most treasured passages of Scripture.

It's a passage, this and the next 2 chapters, where God bypasses, as it were, the prophet and speaks directly to a man.

And so much of what you find in Job 38 to 40 is intended to make us think.

Gird up now thy loins like a man, For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me." Then turn forward a page or so to chapter 40.

Gird up thy loins now like a man, "'I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me.'" God uses this metaphor in a number of places in Scripture.

The metaphor of whatever is that is slowing us down and our ability to think, to please take care of that so that we can make the progress we need to make so we can do what we need to do so our minds can be on target.

1 Peter, in chapter 1, looking at verse 13.

Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, or completely, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Listen carefully to verse 14.

As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance." If we'd read verse 14 backwards, it says that when we were ignorant, we were still fashioning ourselves.

Ignorant people are all the time molding themselves and changing themselves.

But how do ignorant people change themselves?

They continue to mold themselves after their lusts.

The lusts are the molding agent, or as it were, the mold that ignorant people are being formed into.

It's as if ignorant people are being squished into the mold of their lusts and becoming more and more like their passions, their appetites, their desires demand that they be.

And do you see in verse 14 that that's not how obedient children form themselves?

Verse 13 and 14 together imply that if you don't gird up the loins of your mind, then you will fashion yourself according to your lusts.

Or said a different way, if you don't want to be fashioned according to your lusts, then you need to gird up the loins of your mind.

Verse 15, But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." So God's call for me to be holy in 1 Peter 1 is the reason for me to gird up the loins of my mind.

The statements I read to you before this, we started our little Bible study.

I hope you will listen to this and get the references if you didn't write them down again.

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If There Be Any Virtue

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