Sermon: Hope in Christ Purifies Us
#1701-PM
Martin G. Collins
Given 06-Apr-23; 67 minutes
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transcript:
Many lessons, as you well know, can be learned from leavening. You have heard the saying, she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar (or he did). But apparently the cookie jar is not the only place a person can get caught with her hand getting leavened cookies. Are you sure? Are you 100% sure that you do not have leavening in your underwear drawer? Do not answer that question please.
After many years of keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread, I was under the misconception that underwear drawers had no leavening in them. But an elderly lady in God's church who lived to be over 100 years old changed my mind. Because while in a nursing home, she had constant hankering for cookies. So when she was able to get some, she would hide them either in her underwear drawer or in the underwear she was wearing.
So sin, like leaven, can be found almost anywhere. It was one I had not thought of before that. But I do not mean to put that woman down at all because she was in the church a long time, and a fine woman. It is just that she loved cookies.
While the children of Israel were leaving Egypt, they had a hankering for much more than cookies. They began their journey with hope of a better physical future, while at the same time, they lacked faith and their erratic uncertainty led to discontentment and discouragement.
The Days of Unleavened Bread for us begins a journey with a different hope than a better physical future, because our hope is a spiritual hope in Jesus Christ of eternal life, which is a quality of life.
The Israelites had a long record of complaints against the Lord and their leaders, and being judged for it. Their hope began on the night of the Exodus, the Night to be Much Observed, after which they were sure Pharaoh's army was going to kill them. And the anxiety grew and the fear grew.
That night represents God's preservation for people, which is odd that the Israelites would have been anxious and afraid. But God keeps and secures and guards us. And He was doing that beginning on the Night to be Much Observed way back then among ancient Israel. He does it for us in a spiritual way and He guarantees that He is always there for us.
However, as Israel entered the wilderness of Shur, they complained because they did not have water to drink and then they murmured because they missed the meals that were provided for them in Egypt. It is amazing that they would lust for those things. "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt!" was their favorite lament. At Rephidim the people were ready to stone Moses because they had no water. And at Tabereth, some of the people complained and were killed by fire. Shortly after, the mixed multitude incited the Israelites to ask for meat to eat. And Moses became so discouraged he almost wanted to die.
For most churches there are two or three chronic complainers who plague the spiritual leaders and sometimes must be disciplined. But here was an entire nation weeping over a plight they had caused by their own unbelief which destroyed their hope. They did not admit their own failings. Instead, they blamed God and decided to choose a new leader and return to Egypt. This was a rebellion against the will of God. A complaining spirit is evidence of an ungrateful and unrelinquished will.
(Those of you in the speech club, here is the specific purpose statement—the SPS.) Following the Passover, when God's people have been cleansed of sin and our guilt by the blood of Christ, we keep the Days of Unleavened Bread, and we work with God's help to remain sinless, to remain unleavened. And under God's plan, we work to purify ourselves by hope in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, when we as individual children of God are in accordance with God's will, there is no room for complaining, even if the circumstances are difficult. The will of God will never lead us where the mercy of God cannot provide for us, or the power of God will protect us.
If our daily faithful prayer is, "Your will be done," and if we walk in obedience to God's will, what is there to complain about? It is a question we should ask ourselves on a regular basis.
Please turn with me over to Hebrews 3. In contrast to the ancient Israelites, we must be diligently confident and conscientiously hopeful with joy. Their servant leader Moses was faithful to his house, Israel, as a type of Christ over His own house, God's church, and its individual members. Here, there is a comparison between Jesus Christ and Moses, showing Jesus Christ to be the more faithful one, but Moses still having been faithful.
Hebrews 3:1-6 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One [that is, Christ] has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward [verse 6 is my focus], but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast to the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
The faithful Moses was a type or forerunner of Jesus Christ. But the Israelites he led out of Egypt had inconsistent faith and hope, and they focused on physical things and their work of bondage because of their fearful and distracted mindset. They resisted hope. The physical challenges of life were more real to them than the spiritual realities of God's deliverance. Had they had real hope they would have been willing to suffer and endure and persevere to achieve the goal of their future reality.
We have a different future reality in that it is a spiritual reality. It is a reality of liberty which these days represent, and also of the Kingdom of God. Theirs was a physical liberty in the land they were to inherit at the end of the 40 years.
This confident message of hope means our life involves endurance and perseverance. Faith and hope are interconnected. Faith will diminish without hope because hope is a motivator.
In stark contrast to Moses, the Israelites in the world today believe that the word hope means something that is uncertain, which is the opposite of what true hope is. But for us, the church, it refers to what is sure and certain, but for which we wait. The apostle Paul calls this "one hope" in Ephesians 4:4 because it embraces a unifying set of beliefs among us, the elect of God, the saints.
Another way of thinking about our hope is to say that when Jesus Christ returns, we are going to be with Him. People from all races, nations, and economic backgrounds will be together with Jesus, our Savior, our King; and the many things that divide us now will be forgotten then.
It is vitally important that we remember our privileges as members of God's church. And it is our privilege that we are called children of God. To bear the name of the Family of God is something to keep our feet on the right path that set us climbing toward perfection.
Nevertheless, we are not merely called children of God. We are the children of God. And it is by the gift of God that a person becomes a child of God. By nature we are the creature of God, but it is by grace that we become children of God.
Please turn over to I John 3. While all humans are children of God in the sense that we owe our lives to Him, we become His sanctified children in the intimate and loving sense only by an act of God's initiating grace and the response of our own hearts. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind."
I John 3:1-3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. [my focal point is verse 3] And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Those who can truly be called the children of God are abundantly blessed. And the apostle John says, "Now we are children of God." We are in the Family of God already as adopted children, but not yet receiving the complete gift of salvation and eternal life. The firstfruits of God's Kingdom receive this at our resurrection to spirit life.
Now, when we were baptized in the name of the Father and the Son, and by means of the Holy Spirit and received God's Spirit, we were placed into the Family of God and we are now sons of God. We bear that name and there is no greater name to bear.
Psalm 16:3 As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all My delight.
That is us. That is what God thinks of us. How can it go wrong with someone like that looking over us and thinking of us in that light?
I John 3 is a very practical chapter. While it deals with hope, it has more to do with the result of that hope in the purity of a saint's life. The Days of Unleavened Bread are primarily about living a sinless life, not much about sin itself, so to speak. We are to live pure lives because God has declared us His holy people. And hope is a major motivating factor for that.
What is unique about our saintly hope? I John 3:1-3 speaks of people who have hope—"hope in Him"—hope in Jesus Christ and hope in God the Father. So we have a hope unique to ourselves. It is the hope of being like Jesus Christ—"we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
No one would feel completely fulfilled if their hope was only to stand on the Sea of Glass and be forever free from sorrow, toil, and pain (although that would be quite a breathtaking and wonderful experience). However, that is a future blessing that gives general hope but is not enough to sustain a hope that purifies. It would not be enough to satisfy us perfectly.
The kingdom that a saint seeks is a spiritual one and it is the kingdom of being like God. Being like Jesus Christ consists of our sharing in His joy, His honor, and His glory. That is something that we can immediately look at. You do not have to wait for the future to conceive that.
Yet from the context of I John 3, we find that it lies mainly in our being spiritually and morally like Him. It is a process of cleansing, and purification even as He is pure. So God has instilled in each person at least an idea of his own moral condition and that of others. A bad person sees evil and he is blind to good. A person who is partially like Christ has only a partial view of Christ. You can get an idea of your own character by what you reflect. If you are more involved in the world than not, you will reflect more of the world than not, and so on.
So if your eye does not see inexpressible integrity and glory in Jesus, it is your eye that is to blame because He is perfectly pure. And when the eye of our inward nature comes to see Jesus Christ as He is, then we will know that we are like Him. So it is the pure in heart that see God, because God, the inexpressibly pure One, can only be seen by those whom are themselves pure or in the process of purifying. When we are perfectly pure, we will be able to understand Christ completely. And when we understand Christ or see Him as He is, as we will at His appearing, then we will be like Him—free of sin, pure, and perfect.
He is the conqueror over sin and death. He is excellent in His virtue and His holiness, and He has conquered all the powers of evil. This then is part of our hope that we will be like our Master when we see Him as He is.
But why do we expect this? What is the basis of our hope? The context of I John 3 shows us that we do not expect to be like Christ because of anything that is in us by nature or any efforts that we ourselves make. The basis of all is divine love. Notice what begins I John 3.
I John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
We expect to be like Christ, the Beloved of God, because we also are beloved of God. And it is according to the nature and purpose of the love of God to make us like Him.
Please turn with me to Romans 8. The apostle Paul says that we have been called the sons of God and that we really are God's sons. Well, that is another basis of our hope. We hope to be like Christ because the sons of God are like each other. It is God's purpose that Jesus Christ is the firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 8:29 [Paul writes] For whom He [that is, God the Father] did foreknow, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He [that is, Jesus] might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Conformed here means "made similar to or identical with." Since we are adopted into the divine Family and are to be made like our Elder Brother, we therefore believe that we will be one day like Jesus Christ in the perfection of His excellence. It gives us tremendous hope for the future and it gives us hope to be like Christ now, because we want that to come as soon as possible.
Let us turn over to I Peter 1. We are now the sons of God and we will become like Him as we work to purify our conduct and attitudes to conform to His image.
I Peter 1:15-16 But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct [that is talking to us right here and now, we will be doing this right at this time, immediately, and ongoing through our lives], because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."
So when the apostle John said in his letter, "it has not yet been revealed what we shall be," he meant that we do not know some of the specifics about what our nature will be like, but we do know what it will be in general: We shall be like Him. We are the only creature that God has created and has given the Spirit of God, and are being conformed to His image, which makes every individual saint a unique individual, as Christ is unique as well. Of course, Christ is unique in so many other ways, especially His sacrifice.
Now, the hope of being conformed to the image of God in Jesus Christ is what motivates us to purify ourselves. It is the impetus that drives a person in overcoming and growth because it assures us of the right direction. It thrusts us toward the Kingdom of God.
We are going to be well above the angels and in the image of and of the mind of the Son of God who is worshipped, and is worthy of worship.
This introduction introduces a further element for our hope that we are now one with Jesus Christ. Therefore, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. He was hidden from the world and the world did not know Him. Therefore, we are also hidden—the world does not know us, that is, the saints. They may recognize as being different, but they do not know us as children of God. Not yet, not until Jesus Christ is revealed.
He is to be revealed and there is to be a day of His unveiling to the world. And when He is revealed, we will be revealed too. Knowing that we are united to Christ by sacred spiritual bonds, we therefore expect that when we see Him as He is, we will be revealed like Him.
So the basis of our hope lies altogether in and through Him, in and through Jesus Christ. Every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself. All true hope is hope in and through Jesus Christ. Our hope is always ultimately in the Father, but it is in and through Jesus Christ.
We look to God for all purity, believing that He is the essence of it. Still, John tells us that every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself. God works in everyone who has this true hope. And we do not believe that anyone purifies himself in the way that sinners are purified by God, applying to them the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
The way we work to become purified is to use all possible means to overcome sin, remain sinless, and walk in righteousness. That is one of the things that the Days of Unleavened Bread is all about. It is about using all possible means to overcome sin, remain sinless, and walk in righteousness.
We enter, in a symbolic sense, the Days of Unleavened Bread sinless, unleavened. But we know in reality, we still sin through it, but symbolically we should be sinless throughout the Days of Unleavened Bread and be conscious of being sinless rather than the aspect of sin, which is also important to recognize. But I believe the priority is to recognize a sinless life, what we have to do to purify our lives or continue purifying it.
There are sins which, though we are purged from them, will try to return, and we who have true hope will purify ourselves every day from them. We will hate the very thought of those sins and any expressions or actions that might lead toward them. We abhor sins, we flee from them, because we must resist the desire that leads to sin.
And we understand that in this warfare to avoid and flee is the truest courage of all. Therefore, from such sins we flee, as Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife, leaving some of his clothing behind to get away from temptation and sin. So in this way, he purified himself, maintaining his virtue and his integrity.
Now, purification is not a one time event. It is an ongoing, hard-working chore. We must continue from this day forward, and until we die, to continue seeking to purify ourselves. One of the doctrines of the church in Hebrew 6 is moving on to perfection, which that perfection generally we think of as completion, that God will complete us for our resurrection. But we are commanded to move on toward perfection and that is what purifying ourselves is.
Over time, we find that there are sins in our nature that more readily overcome us than many others do. Against these we pay special attention, and we are painfully aware of them. So we arm ourselves with the shield of faith and other armor. We know the temptation to impatience, and murmuring will come, and we try to purify ourselves from that by overcoming our desire, being thankful, and showing gratitude for all that we have in life under the power of God's Spirit.
This purifying of our own life is a great continuous work to be done. But it is a work that everyone who has this hope in Christ will do. It is in our nature because Jesus Christ and God the Father have placed it there with Their Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit is working to change our nature from human nature to godly nature—and it is a lifetime struggle. This is the great struggle and warfare of our life to first get rid of this sin and then overcome the others that we may be wholly sanctified to the Lord.
Please turn with me to Psalm 139. What motivates us to purify ourselves? We do it by appreciating and imitating the example of Christ. We familiarize ourselves with the life of our Savior. We are, in this way, helped to see what sin is, where sin is, and to hate it. Then we pray to God to give us a tender conscience. We must have a good sensitive conscience that will shiver when the very thought of sin goes by. We must endeavor to have this sensitiveness because we know that if we do not have it, we will not be purified from sin. There has to be a sensitivity to it.
Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
This should be a daily banner that we wave in our lives. We do not want to live in sin, thinking it is not sin, but we want to get away from it—to avoid it, to flee it.
We must insist and establish firmly that Christ is our Standard. We cannot waver on that in any way. We purify ourselves even as Christ is pure. And it is a mistake to make anyone our model except Jesus Christ, because in any other life but His there is sure to be something negative in it, because all humans have negative things in them. All humans continue to sin, even with God's Holy Spirit, and we work to overcome them.
No one is fit to be a model for everyone except the Savior who redeemed us. But that is not to say that we should not look to other Christians for a good example of how to live God's way of life and learn from them and imitate even the good they do. Of course, no human is a perfect example of all good things, so we also have to have discernment in what we imitate in other human beings.
Please turn back to I John 3. If we copy Christ, we will, through the power of His Spirit, attain a sterling character. Jesus is the real purifier. While He is helping us to purify ourselves, how do we apply and test that? Hope. Faith and hope are interconnected. Faith will diminish without hope because hope is unmotivated, as I mentioned earlier in the sermon.
I John 3:2-3 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Verse 3 is a very real and very sure test; the extent to which it shows how much we really grasp the teaching of verse 2 (which concerns faith), is proved by the extent to which we implement verse 3 (which concerns hope). We can put it this way: It is what we are and what we do that really shows our faith and our witness. That is the great theme of the epistles of James.
James 2:20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
There is no dispute between James and John; both are saying the same thing, namely, that faith is of no avail unless it leads to this hope in Christ. It becomes a very thorough test of what we truly are. In other words, our failure, at least for most of us, is in the realm of belief.
Why do we therefore fail so much in practice? The answer is that our belief is defective. If only we really did see ourselves as we are depicted in the Bible, the problem of conduct would immediately be solved, but we have human nature and we cannot see ourselves completely.
So the real trouble with most of us is not so much in the area of our conduct and practice as in the area of our belief. And then it gets back to the letter and the spirit of the law. The letter of the law being that we will not commit adultery or we will not murder, and the spirit of the law being we will not even lust after a woman in our heart, or hate someone. The Israelites were barely able to keep the letter of the law and it was impossible for them to keep the spirit of the law.
The ultimate way of carrying out these duties and really practicing these things is to have such a grasp and understanding of the doctrine that the practice becomes inevitable. And that is, of course, precisely what the New Testament always does. In other words, we cannot very well look at this verse without observing the way in which the New Testament always presents its teaching with regard to the whole issue of holiness.
The apostle Paul illustrates energy in the holy life by comparing the rewards obtained in the two contrasting kinds of service: that of the world and that of God.
Romans 6:19-22 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you then have in the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
So Paul's illustration from slavery stresses the importance of giving oneself entirely to God rather than to sin. Unbelievers are naturally captivated by sin. Sin always brings destructive results in their lives and eventually results in death.
Please turn over to Revelation 15. Paul tells us that the fruit or result of living righteously as slaves to God is holiness and this service to God results in holiness; whereas in contrast, slaves of uncleanness give slave service to Satan, the world, and their own human nature, and produces evil.
Holiness, in highest sense, belongs to God.
Revelation 15:4 "Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested."
Holiness belongs to us also, but only as consecrated to God's service, and insofar as we are conformed in all things to the will of God. Ephesians 4:1 says, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." So it is an added attribute where pure holiness is of God, but also we are to be holy.
It is not something that we only strive for. It is much, much more than that. Personal holiness is a work of gradual development. It is carried on under many hindrances and that is why there are frequent biblical admonitions to watchfulness, prayer, and perseverance.
Holiness is the habit and character of being of one mind with God, as we find His mind described in Scripture. So it is the habit of agreeing with God's judgment, hating what He hates, loving what He loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word.
Our reason for being holy is that we are children of God and are destined for glory. If we do not practice holiness in those terms, we will eventually and inevitably go astray.
Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
Look at people in mainstream Christianity. Many are trying to be holy, at least in their own minds, in their own definition, and many are trying to live by what they believe are biblical standards, but they fall short and miss the mark because they are not sanctified children of God. And that is the real issue. In order to be holy, you have to be a set apart child of God, a sanctified child of God.
Now, when we wrongly make holiness a thing of itself, we produce our own rules and regulations and we may become self-righteous because we have carried out our duties and we forget the real objective for which we have originally set out—that of having this hope in Christ, thereby purifying ourselves.
Let us look at a few distinctions about holiness because, in purifying ourselves, we are trying to be a holy people. One distinction is that holiness is not something that we are called on to do in order that we may become something; it is something we are to do because of what we are already. Once again,
I John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Let us turn over to I John 4. We are to be holy and live the holy life in order that we may become members of the Family of God. That we have embraced God's truth is a sign that we are children of His Family. God's truth is our way of life that we live because we are of God.
I John 4:4-6 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
So we should be living our lives in such a way that our conduct with others so clearly manifests our character of integrity and purity that no one could justify calling us into question. We are not to live a good and holy life only so that we can become a Christian. We are to live the holy life because we are members of the God Family. We have true hope and live this holy life, not only by living this life in order that we may enter the Kingdom of God. It is because we know we are going to enter God's Kingdom. We know we are going to.
Holiness is a general term used to indicate sanctity, separation, and being set apart from all that is sinful, impure, and morally imperfect. The holiness required of us, upon whom the Scriptures everywhere lay almost exclusive stress, is that of character and conduct from the heart, from within.
We build good character and conduct because we are God's children. It is not only our obligation, but more importantly, it is what we want to do because the Holy Spirit now dwells in us. We feel compelled to do it, and we want to do it. We desire to do it. That is our first love.
We have an assurance that we have been called and we are preparing now for responsibility in God's Kingdom. And it is because we know we are going to meet God that we must prepare to meet Him. So why would we ever want to say, "Well, I'll prepare to meet God in the future sometime." We want to prepare to meet Him right now. Because on our way home we could have an accident, like James and Austin experienced near-accidents on the way home from a Passover. And that quick, I am sure it was God protecting those two men. God is there so we cannot wait on this. We have to begin immediately. No more delays.
Another distinction is that holiness and the holy life, the life that is set apart from sin in the world, is something that we work out. Let me qualify this by saying that God is the one who declares us to be holy. All of God's working with us to complete us—His tests, His discipline, His blessings—in a sense are linked to the gift of grace.
Please turn with me to Philippians 2. We have been given a glimpse of the vision of the glory that awaits us beyond death and the grave. We are told that in light of that to proceed to work out this, or to work this out and to purify ourselves as Jesus is pure. Consider how the apostle Paul puts the same thing.
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
So God has His responsibility that He is fulfilling. And He has the greater responsibility, the greater power. We have our responsibility to work out our own salvation with the use of His Holy Spirit, and because of that, we work it out. It is not something that suddenly comes to us without effort, but it is the result of living God's way of life, which is the following of Christ's teaching. It is the right application of God's truth that we believe and live by because we are children of God. It is what we are.
Please turn to Psalm 24. Ancient Israelites were symbolically cleansed by baptism as they went through the Red Sea, but were not purified. David distinguishes between clean and pure in Psalm 24.
Psalm 24:4-5 He who has clean hands [that is, keeps the letter of the law] and a pure heart [that is, keeps the spirit of the law], who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Hands are the instruments by which we accomplish anything. Therefore to have clean hands is equivalent to being upright in action. To have a pure heart is equal to being righteous in thought, which leads to the right action.
Now turn over to I John 1. A pure heart is not merely one whose external conduct is good, but whose heart is untainted. The essential point is that a pure heart is not based on outward conformity to law, but on control of the heart and mind and produces purity of motive and of thought. There is a difference between purifying and cleansing. For comparison, let us look at John's use of the word cleanse here.
I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The main difference between the two words "purifying" and "cleansing" is that between an eternal internal action and an external action.
To cleanse is to deliver openly from evil and pollution and all that is shameful. Purification is something that happens within in the spirit, and in the mind, and in our essence and essential character. Purifying ourselves is the positive side of purging ourselves of our sinful thoughts and actions. If we do not replace sin with something good, it will come back.
Please turn over to Exodus 13. The fleeing ancient Israelites had a vision of something wonderful, but they did not fill the void of their memories of their previous slavery. They even wanted to go back to Egypt and they wanted to go back into the sinful world.
Exodus 13:17 Then it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, "Lest perhaps the people change their minds [that is, out of fear] when they see war, and return to Egypt."
Turn over to Numbers 14. The Lord, of course, had discerned their faithlessness. Look how they reacted when they became afraid of entering Canaan and refused to go in.
Numbers 14:1-4 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that are wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" So they said to one another, "Let us select a leader and return to Egypt."
We do not want to ever get in that state of mind!
The whole congregation of Israel criticized Moses and Aaron and complained that their nation had not perished in Egypt or in the wilderness. I cannot imagine someone in the church crying because they could not return to sinfulness of any kind in the world, willing to accept the death penalty. But that is human nature. It deceives and Satan is right there ready to use it.
A lessons for us: When our eyes are on ourselves and our circumstances, we lose our perspective and say and do ridiculous things.
Please turn over to Matthew 12. Now, some who attended God's church for years have gone back into the world, back into a sinful lifestyle, back into the void! If we do not fill our minds with the Word of God, the world, Satan, or both will fill it. It is a devastating situation when a demon enters back in again. Here is a very familiar example for you.
Matthew 12:43-45 "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and he takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation."
A side note here. Since the number seven is often linked to completeness and perfection, it may be that seven here signifies completeness of demonic possession once the demon returns. I do not know, that is speculation, but that is what the number seven means. And we know that the numbers in Scripture have meaning.
Let us turn over to I Corinthians 4. In terms of the Days of Unleavened Bread, our lives have been cleansed of sin, and the penalty of sin, which is death, has been removed by the spiritual washing of the blood of Jesus Christ. In preparation for the Days of Unleavened Bread, we have unleavened our lives of physical leavening, representing the removal of sin.
I Corinthians 5:7-8 Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven [There should not be any leavening in our home, so to speak. And there probably is somewhere that we have missed, just like our lives. But we also want to try to remain sinless.], nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
So is that a banner that we are able to wave now during the Days of Unleavened Bread, sincerity and truth? When you hear the word sincerity, you cannot help but think of humility. Humility, sincerity, and truth are very important to the Days of Unleavened Bread, just as they are the rest of the world. But it is an important focus.
We must do more than purge ourselves of sin, we must replace it. This process takes a long time and a lot of effort. Now in order to remain cleansed, we must use the mind and power of God, the Holy Spirit, to work out our own salvation and purify ourselves with the hope that is set before us. Therefore to purify means, in this sense, not only to get rid of the tarnishing effect of sin upon us, but also to avoid sin in our whole nature and in our whole being. By this, we inevitably purify ourselves.
Let us turn over to Romans 7. It is not enough only to stop sinning and overcome it. We must flee from it and avoid it. We must not allow ourselves to be in a situation where we are tempted to sin, nor even give the appearance that we are sinning. The apostle Paul also found this hard to accomplish. This is a passage that we can all relate to and it is one of the most comforting, in a sense, passages for me personally because I can relate so well with what Paul says here, and I am sure that you can as well. Paul is speaking of himself, describing a fierce internal struggle.
Romans 7:15-20 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil that I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
So Paul is emphasizing the futility of the struggle if it is in our own strength. He is saying that just as the law of God is unable to justify us (justification is made possible by the work of Jesus Christ), so also the law is unable to sanctify us. But Christ separates us. He sets us apart, which He accomplishes in us through and by the Holy Spirit. It is not just that we do not sin, but we are positively and actively pure even as He was pure.
Now, as members of God's church with God's Holy Spirit, we do sin, as we all realize and recognize. What we do not do is, we do not live it as a way of life. And that is a big distinction between the world and us. They live it as a way of life. We do not; but we do slip sometimes because we still have human nature and it takes a lifetime and all God's efforts, so to speak, to rid us or to change our human nature over to His nature, which is the process of sanctification, which also these days represent.
So that is the idea of the word purify. It is a deeper and more profound word than just the idea of cleansing and of getting rid of the effects of sin on the surface. People who are concerned about purifying themselves are those who want to overcome all their sins and be like Christ.
I might add just as a side note, and that is that the translators used cleansing and purifying sometimes interchangeably. Some of the margins in my Bible were saying that this is not the word, it should be this. You know, it will say cleanse, and then on the margin, it will say it should be purifying, or back and forth. So I am just alerting you, that when you are reading the Scriptures and it is says cleansing or purifying, it could be from two different words or reversed. This is the way the translators looked at it. I noticed that in the New King James. I am sure it is similar in some of the others.
Our whole approach must be intensively positive and active. We must want our whole being to have positive desire to be like Jesus Christ and God the Father, and be well pleasing in Their sight. This means we cannot be guilty of idolatry with the world's entertainment and books, movies, TV shows, sports, software games, music, or anything else that makes us appear or act worldly. We cannot purify ourselves while becoming worldlier so we need discernment in determining what is and what is not, do we not?
Please turn with me to II Corinthians 7. According to John, purifying ourselves is an active process, not a passive one. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself. That is a doctrine that is not confined to John's teaching, you will find it everywhere in the New Testament. Take, for instance, the apostle Paul in II Corinthians 7.
II Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
So we see the sense of cleansing ourselves by not submitting to sin passively, but by perfecting ourselves to satisfy being holy. Also, for example, Hebrews 6:11-12 and 18-19, where we are exhorted to show diligence in this matter of "the full assurance of hope to the end." So we are not to be apathetic and lazy, but like those who have gone before us, we must be diligent and press on and strive to purify ourselves because we "lay hold of the hope that is set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast."
Many other terms in the New Testament suggest the same thing. Think for example, the words used by the apostle Paul in Colossians 3.
Colossians 3:5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
These members (of a different and rebellious nature) refuse to be ashamed. So we must take our sinning tendencies and expel them. We purify ourselves by considering Christ, by looking to Him and His perfect life. That is the pattern we are to follow.
The apostle Paul reminds us that God has called us so we may be conformed to the image of His Son. So if that is God's plan and purpose for us, then the first thing we must do is to look to Jesus Christ, to look at the way He conducted Himself in this life and world, and imitate Him.
The way Paul puts it in,
Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on the things of earth.
Again, notice the activity: set your mind, your cares on the things above. Read and study your Bible every day, meditate on God's sovereignty and glory, and that you are His child. Think deeply about these things. Do not let your mind be set on the things of the earth, deliberately refuse to do so, consciously refuse to put your mind on worldly things. We can do that. It takes a lot of effort and it takes all day, but once we get into the habit of it, there is sometimes a thought will pop into our mind and we think, where was that from? And we immediately block it out or push it out.
Sometimes, if it is not a good thought, maybe some type of a sinful thought, we may want to rebuke Satan. Not us rebuke him because we cannot rebuke any spirit being. We have to call upon God and say, "The Lord rebuke you!" or whatever term we would want to use for God. But sometimes people will try to say, "I rebuke you." Well, that was just a useless statement because we cannot rebuke anybody, but we can call on Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, "The Lord rebuke you!" or something like that. But if you find a thought pop in your mind that you just feel is evil, do that and then it will immediately disappear. I am not saying I have a lot of practice in that. But you know, it is a serious thing if it is a bad enough thought.
Consider the contrast between temporary and eternal things.
II Corinthians 4:17-18 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
We must look at the eternal things with the mind's eye that are not seen so we meditate on them, and having looked at the Father and His Son and having followed Them, and while we are looking and setting our mind on the eternal things above, we must do our greatest to see that vision of glory. That is why we are to meditate; so we can take the time to contemplate and think about how great, how wonderful, how glorious God the Father and Jesus Christ are, and how incredibly unique Jesus Christ's sacrifice is.
What are the encouragements and the motives for us to purify ourselves this way? The hope of being conformed to the image of God and Jesus Christ is what motivates us to purify ourselves here and now, and in the present. We must be thinking very deeply that we want to be like Christ now. And we want to do things that Christ does now and not push things off and delay, as I mentioned earlier.
If we believe that we are children of God and that we are really in the Family of God, and if we believe that this uncertain physical life of ours will someday suddenly come to an end and we will rise to meet Christ in the air at the appointed time, is it not spiritual common sense that we should be preparing ourselves for that? This is wisdom from above.
Turn over to I John 2. Is it not hopelessly illogical and unreasonable to go on living in contrast to that to which we were called? If we believe this, if we claim this, then it is consistently a matter of common sense. It is a matter of saintly logic. It is a matter of being spiritually reasonable that we should do so. But there are further inducements given to us in the Bible. Because of our frailty, another great reason for purifying ourselves is so that we may not find ourselves feeling ashamed when Christ arrives in glory. John told us that in,
I John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
This means that if you have been purifying yourself, you as a child of God are going to see Him as He is. Then you will really understand what your salvation meant to Him and what it cost Him when you look into His face and into His eyes. And if you do not want to feel ashamed, if you do not want to feel you are unacceptable, and that you have been a fool because you have kept your focus on the insignificant temporary things of life of the earth with their physical and spiritual pollution and their worthlessness, then prepare to meet your God now, be ready for Christ's coming and avoid that senseless shame.
But this is negative. An even stronger reason for purifying ourselves is that we all should have a positive desire to be like Christ now! We should be filled with a strong aspiration of and longing to live this glorious, wonderful life that Christ has made possible for us through His death and resurrection. Hope is not only about the distant future, it is about our hopeful desire to be like Jesus Christ now, today.
Please turn over to Revelation 19. We should all be energetic and full of spiritual life to please Him. If we really believe He came from heaven to earth for us, and if we really believe that He suffered the agony of the crucifixion and shed His holy blood that we might be redeemed and rescued, if we really believe and love Him, our greatest desire should be to please our God and Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
That is the reason for holy living—the written Word of God's appeal for holiness. It is an appeal to our sense of honor. It is our sense of love and gratitude. We should not have to be offered a reward to entice us to purify ourselves and be holy. We want to do this because we are children of God. It is who we are!
"Everyone who has this hope in Him." We who believe we are going to see Him and be like Him and be with Him—"purifies himself just as He is pure" and "we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him."
Speaking of our future as God's church, the bride of Christ, the apostle John writes,
Revelation 19:7-8 (ESV) Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready [that is, she has purified herself and has become holy]; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure—for the fine linen is linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
There is not a moment to lose! There is so much to be done and the amount of time we have left is uncertain, but we know it is short. There is no time to waste. Thanks to the Spirit that dwells in us, we are a people who are always pressing on toward the goal; and we are always looking forward.
And because we have in sight the vision of glory for which we have already begun to experience in a small way, and for which we are destined, we are pushing forwards toward God's Kingdom.
We are forgetting the things that are behind, redeeming the time, grabbing the opportunity, using every second because of the certainty and hope that we see in Jesus Christ and that we will be like Him and we desire to be like Him now—this moment and from now on!
May God grant you victory as you purify yourselves.
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