THE HARVEST OF THOUGHTS

JEREMIAH 6:1

A. "BEHOLD, I WILL BRING EVIL UPON THIS PEOPLE, EVEN THE FRUIT OF THEIR THOUGHTS"
  1. With God, punishment was never a mere misfortune and an advantageous thing:
    1. It always had an essential relation to life, the result and effect as physical law operates
    2. "For what a man soweth that shall he also reap" - Gal. 6:7-8
  2. This doctrine of cause and effect is taught in all the Bible:
    1. Adam and Eve were informed of that law - Gen. 2:16-17
    2. Cain was warned of that law - Gen. 4:6-7 B. THOUGHTS ON THOUGHTS
  3. What do we mean by Thoughts?
    1. Thoughts are unspoken words and deeds "For as he thinketh in his own heart so is he" - Prov. 23:7; Examples: The thought of a Pharisee exposed - Matt. 9:34; another Pharisee's thoughts exposed - Luke 7:39-40
    2. "Thought is the seed of action; but action is much its second form as though is it's first" - Emerson
    3. "A thought embodied and embraced in fit words walks the earth a living being" - E.P. Whiple
    4. "Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes" - Israeli
  4. Good thought and bad thoughts:
    1. Good thoughts center in God, the source of all good - Is. 26:4; I Chron. 29:18
    2. Writes Paul, "Finally, brethren, 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" - Phil. 4:8
    3. Good thoughts are the foundation of good lives'
    4. Evil thoughts the source of evil lives Matt. 15:19-20; 23:1-28; Gal. 5:19-21 C. HARVESTING THE FRUIT OF EVIL THOUGHTS
  5. The history of the human race has a grim story to tell of the harvesting the fruit of evil thoughts:
    1. The tragedy of the first murder in the first family; a brother murders his brother - Gen. 4:8
    2. The flood that destroyed men; save eight souls, revealed the magnitude of evil - Gen. 6:7
    3. The tragedy of Lot's wife, when she became a pillar of salt - Gen. 19:26; Luke 17:32
    4. And we must never forget what happened to Judas, one of the twelve - Matt. 27:1-6
    5. And we must not overlook the first implication of our opening text - God's ancient covenant people were removed from their homeland to the land of strangers; they became bondservants of Babylon
  6. Harvesting the fruit of evil thoughts:
    1. Is thought-provoking to us as a people and as individuals
    2. We are well advised to pray earnestly with the Psalmist - "Search me, O God and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts" - Ps. 139:23
    3. But when we hear that prayer, we are conscious of our being unable to really know whether our thoughts are right or not
    4. Says the Lord, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" - Is. 55:9
  7. What will save the day for us:
    1. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus - Phil. 2:5
    2. When the Son of God has control of our thoughts we will have no room for evil thoughts
    3. Let us fill our thoughts with the great and living truths of the Bible that will be a real safeguard against the harvest of the fruit of evil thoughts
    4. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" - Gal. 5:16
    5. The final harvest; the fruit of evil thoughts is still future; the reapers, however, will soon harvest what they have sown. Let us be on guard.


Design © John Bryant 2011