The Five B’s Of Purity

TITLE: The Five B’s of Purity

Scripture: Psalm 24, especially verses 3–4a: Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart...

Call to Worship: Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy. As He who calledyou is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct (Lev.20:7 and 1Pet.1:15,ESV).

Songs:

To God Be the Glory #33

Now I Belong to Jesus #477

Psalm 24

1 The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

Introduction:

Whatever happened to purity?

It’s a rare commodity today, but as believers, we should be reflecting the character of God.

We need to be clean because God is clean.

The prerequisite for service is cleanliness.

It’s also the prerequisite for blessing.

But how on earth are we going to remain pure in a world like this?

I want to suggest that we do it by “being careful” in five ways.

First, We Need to Be Careful of What We See.

2 Sam.11:1–5 is where the story of David and Bathsheba begins.

There we read:

1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

4 So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.

5 And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am with child.”

David’s sin began with simple sight.

He rose one night, walked on the rooftop, and looked on the houses below.

On the south side of Jerusalem, directly across the valley from where David’s city was located is the little village of Silwan, with houses built one on top of another.

That’s where David saw Bathsheba.

If he had not seen her bathing, he would not have committed this sin.

It’s true that David didn’t go out looking for Bathsheba.

He accidentally saw her.

But sometimes accidents happen on purpose, don’t they, like when you’re alone, flipping through the channels on television?

You need to be careful what you see.

My daughter Mary has five children and she monitors what my grandchildren watch.

In fact, they are only allowed to watch shows and movies that do not contain bad language and sexual subject matter

Job must have had a problem with what we call the “lust of the eyes” in view of the fact that he said,“I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?” (Job 31:1).

The words “Covenant with my eyes” conveys the reality that lustful acts are preceded by lustful looks and thoughts.

Job determined in his heart to exercise the will power necessary not to think lustful thoughts about young women.

He disciplined himself not to take the second look that leads to lust.

Long before the invention of television, a famous philosopher wrote: “Suppose someone invented an instrument, a convenient little talking tube which, say, could be heard all over the whole land. I wonder if the police would not forbid it, fearing that the whole country would become mentally deranged if it were used.”

His words have literally come true.