INTRO.- ILL.- As a father came home from his work he saw his little girl who had been playing in the mud.
He said to her, “My, you’re pretty dirty.” She replied, “Yes, I know daddy, but I’m prettier clean.” Yes and aren’t we all prettier when we’re clean?
Our text speaks of us as being “children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation.”
Children of God without fault. What is that? In a real sense, it’s purity. A person without fault is a pure person and purity of life is something that all Christians should strive for.
ILL.- The Teacher was checking her student’s to see how they would respond to a question. She said, “Cleanliness is next to what?” she asked. A small boy replied with real feeling: “Impossible.”
Cleanliness is next to what? Godliness. Where is that in the Bible? It’s not. It’s a nice thought but it’s not in scripture.
Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” If a person is pure in heart they should also be near to God.
1 John 3:3 “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
ILL.- The distinguished pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York, Dr. Maltbie Babcock was approached by a physician, a member of his congregation, who was concerned about his health. Handing Dr. Babcock some theater tickets he said, “Take these. You need the recreation of going to this play.”
His pastor looked at them. Seeing they were tickets to a play of the kind he could not conscientiously attend, he said kindly, “Thank you, but I can’t take them. I can’t go.” “Why not?” the physician asked.
“Doctor, it’s this way. You’re a physician; a surgeon, in fact. When you operate, you scrub your hands meticulously until you are very clean. You wouldn’t dare operate with dirty hands. I’m a servant of Christ. I deal with precious human souls. I wouldn’t dare to do my service with a dirty life.”
We all are servants of Christ in some form or another. We may not all teach or preach or sing, but we all serve Christ in some form. As servants we must be clean if we’re going to do any good in this world.
Can God really use us in this world if we’re not clean? Our text is just another way to look at purity and how to acquire it.
PROP.- Purity is something that all of us should strive for or work toward. What is it? What does it require?
1- Purity - Work at your faith
2- Purity - Don’t complain
3- Purity - Hold out the Word
I. PURIT - WORK AT YOUR FAITH
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
As you have always obeyed. Can you say you have always obeyed the Lord?
ILL.- George McDonald said, “I find the doing of the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about His plans.”
Disputing with God about His plans for our lives is a matter of disobedience. When God’s Word is clear there should be no disputing, no arguing, and no hesitation. WE MUST OBEY.
ILL.- Someone wrote: It is not the dog’s keen smell or hearing that has endeared him to modern man, it’s his uncomplaining readiness to obey and lavish affection on his human friends. An old saying goes, “To his dog, every man is Napoleon.”
“A dog is loyal, loving, and lovable, even if his master can boast none of these qualities. The Prussian monarch Frederick the Great hit it on the head: “The more I see of men, the better I like my dog. “
ILL.- Some missionary admired a native’s dog when he whistled and it came running. The missionary said, “Your dog is all ear.”
I bet God wishes that we were “All ear” and would come running at His every command.
ILL.- A. W. Tozer, "The man that believes will obey; failure to obey is convincing proof that there is no true faith present. To attempt the impossible God must give faith or there will be none, and He gives faith to the obedient heart only."
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence.
You’ve heard the old saying: “While the cats away the mice will play.” And there’s another similar thought: “When the preacher goes on vacation the church members go or do what?” You can finish the story. Even if the preacher is gone or we don’t even have one, we must be quick to obey because the Lord is ever-present.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
The idea is that we should continue to work at our salvation. If we are ever going to be pleasing to God then we must work at our salvation. Do we ever know too much when it comes to God? Can we ever become too holy or do too much?
ILL.- When Dr./pastor John Watson was a child, he loved to watch the deacons serve the Lord’s Supper, and one old man with very white hair and a meek, reverent face especially interested him. One day he was walking down the road and passed a man breaking stones. The white hair caught his attention, and he looked back and recognized the deacon who had served the Lord’s Supper.
Full of curiosity and surprise, he told his father the strange tale. His father explained to him that the reason why the old man held so high a place in the church even though he was one of the poorest men in all the town. He said, “James breaks stones for a living, but he knows more about God than any person I have ever met.”
Could those words be said to you? If not, we all need to work out our salvation with great fear and reverence for the Lord, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. God is at work and we must let Him do a good work in us.
II. PURITY - DON’T COMPLAIN
14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.
ILL.- A customer was bothering the waiter in a restaurant. First, he asked that the air conditioning be turned up because he was too hot, then he asked it be turned down cause he was too cold, and so on for about half an hour. Surprisingly, the waiter was very patient, he walked back and forth and never once got angry.
So finally, a second customer asked him why he didn’t throw out the pest." Oh, I really don’t care or mind," said the waiter with a smile. "We don’t even have an air conditioner."
Some people are quick to complain anything and everything and even when there is nothing to complain about!
Exodus 17:1-4 1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
The people of Israel were notorious for grumbling or complaining. This wasn’t the first time they grumbled and it wasn’t going to be the last time. They grumbled about the lack of food, or the crummy food, the lack of water, and so on.
I Corinthians 10:6-10 “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.”
Do you get the idea that the Lord wasn’t happy with them and isn’t happy with us when we complain and grumble?
ILL.- Preacher Robert A. Cook said, "Say and do something positive that will help the situation; it doesn’t take any brains to complain." And someone else said, "It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness."
It may be easy to complain about life but it’s not the best thing. The better way of life is to do something good or something positive to help a given situation.
Complainers don’t give the impression of purity or a holy life. But God desires holiness or purity of us.
14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. I get the impression that we won’t shine like stars in this world if we complain and argue all the time.
I Peter 1:15-16 “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
III. PURITY - HOLD OUT THE WORD
You shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.
Holding the word of life. We must hold out the message of God’s Word or hold the Word of life to people. And who is the Word of life? Jesus. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, John said. Are you holding out the word to anyone? In other words, are you talking to anyone about the Lord?
ILL.- Leighton Ford is a preacher and author. He has spoken face to face to millions of people in 37 countries and served from 1955 until 1985 as Associate Evangelist and later Vice President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. For many years Dr. Ford was featured as the alternate speaker to Billy Graham on the Hour of decision broadcast.
Ford tells this story. “I was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was to speak the next night and had arrived a day early. He came incognito and sat on the grass at the rear of the crowd. Because he was wearing a hat and dark glasses, no one recognized him.
“Directly in front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening intently to my presentation. When I invited people to come forward as an open sign of commitment, Billy decided to do a little personal evangelism. He tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, "Would you like to accept Christ? I’ll be glad to walk down with you if you want to."
“The old man looked him up and down, thought it over for a moment, and then said, "Naw, I think I’ll just wait till the big gun comes tomorrow night."
Obviously, not everyone can be a (big gun) Billy Graham when it comes to encouraging people to give their lives to Christ. HOWEVER, you don’t have to be a big gun and in many cases, we “little shots” might do more good or lead some people to Christ that Billy Graham and Leighton Ford could not!
All us need to hold out the Word of God or the message of the gospel to others and any chance we get! Willingness is a big part of getting the job done. We don’t need a Bible College degree to do the work. We just need a heart for others!
John 1:40-42 “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.”
Acts 8:4 “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”
Romans 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
Purity in the eyes of God is a matter of loving people enough to hold out His Word, His gospel to them!
CONCLUSION-------------------
ILL.- After a violent storm one night, a large tree, which over the years had become a stately giant, was found lying across the pathway in a park. Nothing but a splintered stump was left. Closer examination showed that is was rotten at the core because thousands of tiny insects had eaten away at its heart. The weakness of that tree was not brought on by the sudden storm; it began the very moment the first insect nested within its bark.
Is this not similar to us? We can look good on the outside, be neatly dressed, even have good manners, but on the inside there could be a certain amount of rottenness?
Hebrews 12:14 “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
We all need to strive for purity or holiness in our lives. If there ever was a “must” for life, this is it. Keep working at your faith. Don’t complain. Live to lead people to Christ.
Steve Shepherd, Jonesboro Christian Church, AR
jonesborochristianchurch@suddenlink.net
