Provoking Thoughts From 1 John (11 Of 16)

Illus: A man in Columbia, South Carolina went to a doctor because he was tired most of the time. The doctor examined him and found out he was only getting 20% use of his heart.

They did open heart surgery on him, opened up some valves and today he feels like a new man.

There are many people in our churches who have spiritual heart problems. Their spiritual "veins" are "clogged up" with all kinds of sin that Satan has put there. God wants to "operate" on them and remove all that garbage Satan has placed there and give them PURE HEARTS.

HOW CAN YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE A PURE HEART?

Look at what you are producing. A PURE HEART produces certain things, such as:

I. A PURE HEART PRODUCES GOOD ACTIONS

Look at verses 18-19, "My little children, let us NOT love in word, neither in tongue; but in DEED AND IN TRUTH. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him."

Notice, John says that the person with a PURE HEART does not just TALK THE TALK, HE ALSO WALKS THE WALK!

It is not always easy to love the unlovely. Only a person who has a PURE HEART can do that.

Notice, I did not say one of the hardest things is to say you love the unlovely; people do this all the time.

Illus: It is kinda like this. (You can call two teenage boys up front and use them to illustrate this point.) Let us suppose that these two young men are paramedics. They are on duty one day and get called to a home where a beautiful young woman needs some assistance. When they arrive she is unconscious. Immediately, in their expert opinion, they decide she needs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Now do you suppose these young men are going to fuss about having to administer the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? (Give congregation time to comment.) I DO NOT THINK SO EITHER!

Why? Because she is so beautiful and lovely!

But, suppose these same young men were called to an emergency rescue and a woman there also needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but this woman was not so lovely. In fact this woman was very unlovely, and she had been weeding in her garden. She was smelly. She also chewed tobacco, so the juice was running out of her mouth. Now one of these two young men is going to have to administer the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This time they might look at each other and say, "I'll be happy to let you administer the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation this time!" At the same time they both say, "No way, you are going to have to do it or else she is going to die because I AM NOT GOING TO DO IT!"

The point I am trying to make is this; it is not difficult for a young man to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation if the recipient is lovely to look at.

Likewise, it is not hard to love those who love us, however, the hardest thing in this world to do is love someone who is not lovable.

Again, one of the ways we know that we have PURE HEARTS is that we do not just speak words of love, but WE TRANSLATE THAT LOVE INTO ACTION!

John said, "My little children, let us NOT love in word, neither in tongue; but in DEED AND IN TRUTH."

In other words, we are to practice love.

Illus: We are like doctors who have gone to universities to learn how to help people. There comes a time when knowing what to do has to be translated into doing what one knows to do. Those people have to BEGIN PRACTICING WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED.

This is one of the most difficult lessons for Christians, God's church, to learn. We do not have a difficult time TALKING IT. THE PROBLEM COMES IN WALKING IT!. For example,

Illus: The late Dr. Oliver Greene, in “The Epistle of John, p. 141," said, ”There are occasions when a minister visits widows where there are children in need, and after a pastoral call the minister bows in prayer and asks God to supply the need of that family, when at that time there are hundreds - perhaps thousands - of dollars of God's money in the bank to the credit of the big church with the tall steeple! The parishioners in that church sing. "Oh. how I love Jesus!" but they love Him in word only - not in deed and truth. The Bible admonition is. 'Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves'" (James 1:22)

Again, one of the ways we can know we have PURE HEARTS is that a pure heart drives us to act.