Purity: looking Beyond The Surface Of Our Lives Series

PURITY: LOOKING BEYOND THE SURFACE OF OUR LIVES

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

Matthew 5:8 (NIV)

Blessed (happy, enviably fortunate, and spiritually prosperous—possessing the happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!

Matthew 5:8 (AMP)

INTRODUCTION: Purity is important when it comes to the water we drink. Purity is important when it comes to the toys we let our children play with. Purity is important when it comes to the food we eat.

Where purity is becoming less important is in the area of morality and lifestyle. Present day society Considers cohabitation normal. Children out of wedlock no longer hold the stigma they used to. Infidelity is on the rise. It seems as those we insist on purity in every area of our lives ACCEPT when it comes to us personally!

Yet, when Jesus spoke these words, “Blessed are the pure in heart, …” that was exactly the kind of purity He was speaking about. A pure individual, one fit for the kingdom of heaven!

Addiction, adultery, and affluence have exacted a price on the family, the church, the community, and ultimately upon our freedoms as a society. History has shown time and again that a nation, any nation, large or small, that does not embrace purity will embrace destruction!

God declared it to the Babylonians: …, You are weighed in the balances and are found wanting;

Daniel 5:27 (AMP)

God declares to the world: … And if anyone’s [name] was not found recorded in the Book of Life, he was hurled into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:15 (AMP)

And to us Jesus writes, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Our only hope of seeing God is by being pure!

I. WHAT PURITY IS

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27 (NIV)

A. “to look after orphans and widows in their distress”

1. I would like to suggest something a little different here than what our standard thinking is concerning what James writes here regarding widows and orphans.

2. First, is the obvious – we are to give special consideration to both widows and orphans.

a) Pure religion – ie:worship is how we treat the most desperate

3. What we over look here is the redemptive connection in this phrase

a) What were we before God worked in our lives

b) First off we were orphans – part of the salvation experience was our adoption into the family of God

Therefore, you are no longer a slave (bond servant) but a son; and if a son, then [it follows that you are] an heir by the aid of God, through Christ.

Galatians 4:7 (AMP)

c) Second we were “widows”.

d) Boaz wed the widow Ruth for a redemption

e) We have a wedding yet to take place the illustrates the culmination of our redemption in Christ.

and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Ephesians 5:27 (NIV)

4. Simply put we are to have a response towards others that mirrors the response God had towards us.

B. “to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

1. The word keep means to reserve by guarding

2. It is used several times in Scripture

and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you,

1 Peter 1:4 (NIV)

11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one.

12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

John 17:11-12 (NIV)

"If you love me, you will obey what I command.

John 14:15 (NIV)

3. Purity is guarding ourselves in the world until Jesus comes

II. HOW WE MAINTAIN OUR PURITY

We maintain our purity by incorporating an attitude of purity in our lives. An attitude of purity is an internal attitude, not an external action

A. The religious leaders of the time were concerned with outward appearance.

Matthew 12:2 (NIV)

2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."

Matthew 12:14 (NIV)

14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.