Tag: purity

Categories
2 Samuel Devotionals

How we see God

2 Samuel

This past Sunday, I was preaching on the Sermon on the Mount, and in particular, Matthew 5:7-8.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (ESV)

I wonder if Jesus was at all thinking of the words of David when he said this.

With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
with the purified you deal purely,
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. (2 Samuel 22:26-27 — ESV)

How do we see God?

Some people see God as tortuous. For example, they look at how God passes judgment on people in scripture and they call it unfair.

Or, ironically, they see how God shows mercy on the undeserving and again scream, “Unfair.”

Why? Because they themselves are twisted in their thinking.

All you have to do is look at society and you can see the twistedness of people’s thinking.

What God calls sin, they call acceptable and good.  And so when God condemns and punishes such sin, they scream that he is being cruel or unjust.

On the other hand, when people wrong them, they think it only natural to “punish” them in return. And if God shows grace and mercy to the person that wrongs them, they again scream that he is unjust.

But what they fail to realize is that all of us are worthy of God’s wrath. All of us are in need of God’s mercy.

It’s why Jesus died on the cross. He took the punishment for all our sins so that we could receive mercy.

And it’s those who realize and accept this that find that mercy and are transformed.

They accept God’s standards for good and evil and seek to follow them.

When they fall, they repent.

Because they themselves have received mercy, they extend it to others.

But as long as people fail to accept that God’s standards are good and right, as long as they fail to understand that they themselves are in need of God’s mercy, they will always see God as tortuous.

They will criticize God when he condemns and punishes sin in the world and criticize him when he shows mercy to those they feel are unworthy.

They “punish” those who sin against them and get angry when God punishes their own sin.

How about you?

When you see God, do you see him as tortuous, unfair, and unjust?

Or when you see him, do you see his purity, his mercy, and his grace?

How you see him is how you will respond to him.

How do you see God?

Categories
1 Thessalonians

To be sexually pure

sexual purity

We live in a world much like the times of the New Testament, a world in which sexual impurity is rampant. We see it in TV shows, movies, commercials, the internet; wherever you look, it’s there.

But in buying into the times, we take a cheap imitation of what God intended for us. Instead of lasting relationships where two people truly become one, we take temporary thrills which ultimately leave us broken and empty.

The numbers of people that have been devastated by sexual sin are innumerable. We see divorce, children without fathers (or mothers), unwanted pregnancies and abortions, STDs, and people torn emotionally apart because of it.

In short, we are far from the whole people that God intends us to be.

And so Paul tells the Thessalonians and us,

Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 

For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him.

The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. (1 Thessalonians 4:1-6)

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.”

What does that mean? It means that we are to be set apart for him. To be his temple that he can dwell in. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that our bodies are his temple. (1 Corinthians 6:19)

But in order for our bodies to be set apart for him, we need to be sexually pure. For when we sin sexually, Paul tells us that we sin against our own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18)

Put another way, when we sin sexually, we defile the very temple of God.

So right after Paul tells us that it’s God’s will we be sanctified, he adds, “that you should avoid sexually immorality.” That means any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage.

Paul tells us that we are not mere animals that simply give into their “instincts.”

Nor are we like those who don’t know God and his will. God has revealed himself and his will to us. And he has given us the ability to make choices.

More, he will hold us responsible for those choices.

When we sin sexually, we wrong the brother or sister that we sleep with.

Not only that, if they are married, we wrong the one they are married to. And if we are married, we wrong the one that we are married to. Paul says we will be judged for that.

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

Just as God called the Israelites from all the nations to be a holy people, he calls us to be holy as well. The question is, are you?

Paul is very strong about sexual purity, saying,

He who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. (8)

In other words, Paul is saying, “I’m not just giving you my opinions. This is what God is saying. And if you reject what I’m saying, you’re rejecting God.”

Are you rejecting God by the way that you’re living? By violating a gift that he has given to bind two people in marriage?

Remember Paul’s words when he says,

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Categories
John John 17

Sanctified, being sanctified

John

Sanctification.

It’s one of those words that could best be described as “Christianese.” A word that has meaning in the church, and very little outside of it.

It’s a word you often see in scripture, and one that you might hear thrown around in Sunday messages.

But what does it mean? Essentially, it has two meanings. It means “to be made separate for God’s purposes.” And it means “to be made pure.”

We see both of these ideas here. Jesus prayed for his disciples,

They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. (John 17:16–19)

Let’s take a look at verse 19 first. Jesus said that he sanctified himself that his disciples (and us, for that matter) would be sanctified too.

In other words, he set himself apart for the Father’s purposes by coming to this earth and going to the cross.

By doing so, he has sanctified us, both in the sense of purifying us of our sins, and also of making it possible for us to become truly his.

Now we are no longer truly of this world, though we are in it. Our way of thinking, the way that we live is completely different from the way the world thinks and lives.

That’s why they can no longer understand us, and some even hate us.

But each day, we are being sanctified.

Through God’s word, he shows us what is sinful in his sight, and he causes us to hate such things. And when we sin, his Word causes us to mourn over our sins and repent. In that way, he is constantly purifying us.

But through his Word, he also shows us day by day what he wants of us. He shows us how we are to live our lives and fulfill the purposes of his kingdom. And as we read and live these things, we become set apart for his purposes each day.

So in one sense we have been sanctified, having our sins cleansed because of the blood Jesus shed on the cross. And in another, we are constantly being sanctified day by day.

And since Jesus prays for this in our lives, let it be our prayer too.

Lord Jesus, please sanctify me through and through each day. Make me more like you, hating sin, and seeking to join the Father in his work every day.

Lord, where I fall, please forgive me and pick me up. Purify me, and make me yours each day. Amen.

Categories
John John 11 Luke 19

A cleansing that goes beyond the surface

The gospels

Right after Jesus’ parable about those who were determined to reject him as king, we see the actual people whom Jesus was speaking of.

Jesus was fast approaching Jerusalem, and a lot of people were already there to celebrate the Passover. And everyone was asking,

What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the Feast at all? (John 11:56)

But the Pharisees and chief priests had already given orders that anyone who found Jesus should report him to them so that they could arrest him. The irony of all this?

Before celebrating the Passover, people had to purify themselves, that is to have a ceremonial cleansing. (John 11:55)

But while these priests and Pharisees may have been outwardly clean, their hearts were full of murder.

What can we learn from all this? A spiritual cleansing goes beyond ritual. It goes beyond doing a lot of good things.

A spiritual cleansing starts by receiving Jesus as your King. It starts by saying, “I can’t cleanse myself. All my efforts, all the religious rituals that I do can’t cleanse me. Lord Jesus, help me.”

John tells us in his first letter that in the end, it is,

the blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, [that] purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

There is no other way for us to become right in the sight of God. We must come to the cross of Christ and accept the work he did for our salvation.

Only by putting our faith in him will we truly become clean in the eyes of God.

How about you? Are you truly clean before God?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: To see God

Matthew

There are so many songs that express a desire to see God. Back when I was a kid, we had a song,

Open our eyes Lord,
We want to see Jesus.

To reach out and touch him.
To say that we love him.

Slightly more recently, there was another song,

Open the eyes of my heart Lord,
Open the eyes of my heart.

I want to see you.
I want to see you.

They’re both great songs, and I love them, but if we really want to see God in our lives, Jesus tells us,

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Why is purity so important? Because God is holy. When the angels sing at his throne, they don’t sing about his love, they sing about his holiness.

(Okay, maybe they sing about his love too, but we never see a song in scripture that says, “Love, love, love, is the Lord God Almighty.”)

God tells us in both the Old Testament and the New to be Holy as he is. (Leviticus 11:44-45; I Peter 1:16).

God hates sin and cannot be near it. And if we are covered in its muck, we will always find ourselves at a distance from God.

This is not to say that we’ll lose our salvation or that God will stop loving us, but we will never have the close relationship that he desires to have with us.

One time, I was talking with a friend in her garage, and her two-year old daughter wandered off.

When she came back, she had a sponge in her hand that her husband had used to clean grease off of their car. So now, the grease was all over her hands and her face, yet despite this, she reached out to my friend wanting to be picked up and hugged.

Needless to say, my friend did NOT want to do that, and so her daughter started to cry. So very gingerly, my friend picked her up from behind and took her into the house to get her cleaned up.

Many times, we wonder why we feel distant from God. We wonder why he doesn’t seem to hear our prayers, or why we never seem to sense his presence.

A good question to ask yourself is, “Am I covered with muck? Is my sin making God keep his distance from me?”

The writer of Hebrews tells us,

Without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

A couple of notes. First, remember that though we may struggle with sin, God promises that,

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

The key is that we always seek to keep a clear conscience before God. And to do that, daily repentance is essential.

The second thing is that just because God seems distant does not necessarily mean you are in sin. There may be other reasons (which is a topic for another blog).

But repentance is a starting point. Ask God, “Is there something between you and me?”

And if there is, God will let you know. I strongly doubt God will ever tell us, “Well, I’m not going to tell you what you did wrong because you should already know.”

So if he doesn’t point out any sin in your life, then know that there are probably other reasons for his silence. And in time, he’ll let you know what they are.

But every day, you should ask yourself, “Is my heart clean before God?”

Categories
Song of Solomon

Keeping ourselves pure

Song of Solomon

We live in a culture where purity is hard to come by.  How many husbands and wives come into their marriages sexually pure?

Everything in our culture seems to fight against it.

TV dramas constantly depict sex before marriage, and outside of it.  Movies do the same.  The internet is full of it, and makes porn even more easily accessible than ever.

More than that, everyone seems to just think it’s natural to sleep with their boyfriend or girlfriend.  Or to move in with them before they get married.

But that’s not what God intended when he created sex.  He created it as something good and to be enjoyed, but only within the confines of marriage.

Within marriage, it’s a beautiful thing that helps bind a couple together, not just physically, but emotionally, and spiritually as well.

But taken outside of marriage, sex often leads to heartache and pain.

Here in this passage, we see a passionate woman who nonetheless saw the need for purity.  As you look at her words, you see her strong desire for her lover.

We see them on their wedding night here, lying together in intimate embrace.  (Song of Solomon 2:3-7)

She compares her husband to an apple tree, and you can see the security that she feels in their relationship.

She says his embrace is like sitting in the shade protected from the hot sun, and all the while, she tastes of his “fruits.” She then asks him for even more, saying,

Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.  (Song of Solomon 2:5)

But then she issues a warning to the single women of Jerusalem, and to us all.

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field:  Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.  (2:7)

In other words, love and sex are powerful things.  And to arouse these passions before you’re ready is a dangerous thing.  What does it mean to be ready?

To be ready emotionally and mentally.

To be mature enough to be able to make a commitment that lasts a lifetime.

To understand what that kind of commitment truly means.  That it’s not simply the feelings of the moment but goes far beyond it.

So many people don’t understand this, and that’s why the divorce rate is so high.

It’s why so many sexual relationships break up even before marriage is reached, leaving many brokenhearted.

The woman then recalls her own courtship.  How her lover appeared and asked her out on a date.

You see his passion and longing for her in his words.  (2:10-14)

But even he was aware of the traps that could destroy a relationship, saying,

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.  (2:15)

The vineyards in this case is their love relationship.  And there are so many foxes that can ruin a vineyard.

In other words, there are many things that can destroy a relationship, including getting too intimate, too soon.

So even in the midst of their strong passions, she tells him,

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.  (2:17)

In other words, now is not the time to spend the night together.  Leave now, and I will see you tomorrow.

Even so, in her dreams, she longs for him (3:1-4), and she dreams of searching for him, and of her joy in finding him.

But once again she warns us,

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field:  Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.  (3:5)

Sex is beautiful.  It was meant to be so.  And by enjoying it as God intended it has tremendous power for good in a relationship.

But by taking it outside of what God intended, it has power that’s equally destructive, to your relationships, and to you.

How about you?  Are you keeping yourself pure?