Living Pure in an Impure World
Psalm 119:9-11
9 How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11 Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You!
I have heard people ask on many occasions, "Why don’t we see power in our churches anymore?" I believe it is because we are impure in our hearts. God cannot use a polluted vessel. Look at James 3:11-12:
11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
This passage is referring to the tongue, but the principle is the same. A polluted spring cannot produce fresh water. God has called us to purity and holiness. Without purity we cannot experience God’s power. Romans 12:1-2 tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. This is how we align ourselves and find the perfect will of God. If we do not take care to renew ourselves, we will soon be conformed to this world and become polluted in our hearts and minds. Jesus said in Matthew 24:
37 "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
38 "For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
39 "and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
. . .
44 "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
45 "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?
46 "Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.
Jesus’ reference to Noah comes from Genesis 6:5-6:
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Jesus warned that in the end times the world would become as it was in Noah’s day when God had to intervene. The entire world was morally bankrupt. All we have to do is take a look around us and we can see Jesus’ prophecy unfolding. There are many ways that we can have sin in our lives, but none leads to spiritual decay faster than immorality. Today we live in a society that is completely obsessed with sexual immorality. You cannot walk past the magazine rack in a grocery store without being bombarded with sexual images. What used to be hidden inside the covers are now displayed boldly on the cover. You can’t avoid exposure to sexual advertising. Walking through a department store, TV shows, commercials, movies, magazines and an innumerable list of abuses of sexuality that pervert sex away from God’s intended design and make living a godly life difficult.
How can we keep our ways pure in an immoral world? There is absolutely no way that you cannot become polluted by the non-stop bombardment of sexuality without a consistent time of cleansing by renewing your mind. "Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually", "As it was in the days of Noah so shall the coming of the Son of Man be". It is not easy to with a pure heart in this world, but we do have the promise, "greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world", 1 John 4:4. Accompanied with the promises of being overcomers, we have the warning of Matthew 13:
33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
34 For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning:
36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
Those who are found watching have the promise of Luke 12:37 "Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them." What we really have to decide is, what do we value most? In James 4:4 we are warned that friendship with the world is to be at war with God. 1 John 2:17 says, "the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." If the world is passing away, it clearly is not a wise choice to choose the world over God. It is also important to realize that sinful pleasure will not satisfy. It may briefly gratify, but there will always be an empty void left behind. This is because God has designed us to have fellowship with Him. Only God can satisfy. If pleasures are where our affection lies, then when the pleasure is gone, so is what we have valued most. We are then left empty. The next lie we are told is that if we go a little farther then we will be content. The reality is that we are being drawn into the infinite trap of satan’s hall of mirrors. Satisfaction through sin is a mirage and always appears to be one step out of our grasp. Only God can fulfill the promise of Psalm 36:7-8, "How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures." Pleasure was designed by God and can only be truly fulfilled by God. It is only found in the path of life and the path of life is only in God’s presence (Psalm 16:11). If you cannot remain in God’s presence, then you will never find the path of life that God has designed uniquely for you. If you can’t be pure in heart, you can’t abide in God’s presence because Jesus promised that the pure in heart would be blessed for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).
I personally have talked with literally hundreds of men who have struggled with things that pollute their minds and destroy their spiritual lives. The vast majority of them are Christians. With very few exceptions, each of them echoes the same feelings of discouragement, guilt and hopelessness. They want to live pure lives, but the trap has been set and they are enslaved by these desires. Most Christians do not want to have lust as a part of their lifestyle nor do they want impure hearts. Women can be equally effected though it manifests itself different than with men. Most men I talk to feel like they are on a roller coaster ride. They try to commit to living godly lives, but just as they feel like they have conquered their weakness, it is as if satan jerks the chain and puts them back into his cage. Where does someone go for help? Almost every person I have talked to says they feel like they are alone in this struggle. Most men do not feel open to seek help from other church members or their pastor. Churches and Christians need to take notice. This problem is not going away and it will only get worse with the direction society is heading. It is the church’s responsibility to pave the way to deliverance through Jesus Christ. Only at the foot of the cross can these burdens be removed. Most people would be completely shocked if they knew just how widespread this problem is inside the church. Jesus said that He came to preach deliverance to the captives and promised that the truth would make you free.
This freedom is the main topic I want to talk about. How do we become free when we feel enslaved? I believe freedom is only found in Christ. It doesn’t matter what compulsive behavior we have, Jesus has the power to make us free in Him. The problem is that when Jesus sets us free, if we return to bondage we are no better off. This whole message is centered around a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Without that relationship, everything else is limited because you are limited your own strength. If you do not have a relationship with God and would like more information, please visit my website at http://www.exchangedlife.com/howto.htm or email me. Once we are free from our passions, we must put our faith into practice. If we return to a sinful lifestyle, we also return to bondage. I believe that there are seven key areas that we must commit to if we expect to overcome and live pure lives and remain free in Christ.
Commit to study the scripture. The opening passage for this sermon was Psalm 119:9-11:
9 How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11 Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You!
We cannot renew our minds without God’s word. God equates His word with Himself. If we don't have any interest in God's word, the same will be true with our interest in God. God won't reach out to someone who resists Him. He will call us to come, but will not take hold of us until we choose to draw near to Him. Scripture memorization is a key part of study. The psalmist said that he hid God’s word in his heart. If you commit to consistently memorizing scripture, it will change your life. You would be amazed at how much you will memorize if you review memory verses once on the way to work and once on the way home. Read the Bible daily. The Psalms and Proverbs are good starting points for someone who is not accustomed to studying the Bible.
When it comes to study and memorization, there are a few pitfalls to be aware of. When most people decide to commit to these study disciplines, they see a tremendous spiritual growth and then get excited about studying. Once the emotions fade, they usually begin to postpone study times and soon abandon all study habits completely. Like everything else in our spiritual lives, feelings should not be our guide. Discipline is when we commit to follow through even when we don’t feel like it. Don’t overwhelm yourself or you will burn out. Instead commit to a timeframe that you can handle and build from there. Once you get to the point where you consistently study even when you don’t feel motivated, you will begin to see steady growth in your spiritual life.
Remember your chains. When we look at scripture, the people with the most passion are the people who remembered what God did for them. Jesus cast out seven demons from Mary and she followed Jesus faithfully. Paul was bound by his delusion to destroy the church and he imprisoned and carried many Christians to their executions. After Paul was converted, he never forgot his past and often mentioned it in the epistles. He lived life with a passion for Christ because he saw what Jesus delivered him from.
I want to be careful to mention here that I am not referring to carrying the burden of your guilt. Quite the opposite. Guilt is very unhealthy and has no place in the Christian life. We have been pardoned from our guilt by the grace of Jesus Christ provided to us on the cross. The guilt is gone, but the joy of our deliverance should remain with us the rest of our life. It is when we forget our bondage that we forget God’s grace and love toward us. This is why God gave Israel feast days as a part of the law. The whole purpose of the feast of the Passover was to remember their bondage in Egypt and how God delivered them by His might. The people were instructed specifically to remember how God delivered them from the house of bondage. 1 Peter 1:3-9 beautifully illustrates this point:
3 His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
Verse 3 promises us that God’s divine power has given us the ability to live a godly life and verse 9 says that if we do not have these attributes, we have forgotten that we are cleansed from our old sins. When we forget history, it repeats itself. Remember your chains and rejoice in your pardon.
Focus on Jesus Christ. Where our focus lies is where we are going. Resistance is futile if we are looking at temptation. Repentance is the key. Repentance is merely changing direction by turning toward God. You don’t always have to be in sin to repent. Repentance is not groveling in self-loathing. Repentance is not striking a bargain with God; it is not putting off sin until a later date or clearing up guilt with the intent to go back. Repentance is committing to a change of focus. It is taking my eyes off what pleases my flesh and changing my focus away from selfish motives and committing to God’s plan by putting Jesus at the center of my world. If I am focusing on the world, the world will be my god. I will always give in when I am distracted unless I turn away from the temptation. The problem most of us have is that we are willing to turn our eyes away but we leave our mind on temptation. Resistance is futile when we are in this frame of mind. What we are really doing is trying to find a smaller compromise that allows us to give in a little without feeling like we are giving in. Sometimes we don’t want to give in, but we don’t think to refocus on Christ. Then resistance is like pushing a heavy weight off our chest. We may be strong at first, but in a short time we begin to tire and soon we loose the battle.
Resistance based on scripture is not to push temptation away, but to turn from temptation and toward Jesus Christ. At the point we turn toward God, we are not pushing away from temptation, but pulling toward God. The Bible promises that if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. Look at James 4:7-8:
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
According to this passage, the key to resistance is to submit to God, then resist. It is the turning to God that enables us to resist because it is only by His power that we are able to resist. We must change directions and change our focus. When we draw near to God, He will cleanse us and give us the ability to live pure lives and get off that double-minded roller coaster ride. In James 1 we are told that we are tempted when we are drawn away by our own lusts and enticed. We are first drawn by our eyes. You cannot focus on Jesus and be drawn away at the same time. You can only focus on one thing at a time. The only thing that stands in your way is your will. Until you are willing to let go of selfish desires, you can never trust God to fulfill your desires by the abundance of His grace. Let Him be the God of your desires and you will be satisfied.
Depend on God’s grace. When we begin to feel self-sufficient, we will be blind-sided. Look at 1 Corinthians 10:12-13:
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Don’t be a target for failure. God is faithful and He will be your strength and show you a way of escape. The problem is that when we are not looking to Him, He can’t lead us out of trouble. God will allow you to be tempted. Temptation strengthens you when you turn to God but weakens you when you turn to the temptation. How do we become righteous and rise above temptation? Look at two passages.
Philippians 3:9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Our righteousness does not come from ourselves, but by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. When we think we stand by our own merits, we will fall. Righteousness and holiness is imputed into our lives by faith in what Christ has already done. That is why Romans 4:5 says, "Now to him who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness." God clearly tells us that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Look at 1 John 5:1-4
1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
If you do not have a desire to keep God’s commandments, you should take notice and make certain that you have been born of God. This is only possible by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ means that you not only believe He is who the Bible says, but that you trust in Him by inviting Him into your heart and committing to make Him Lord of your life.
Commit to an active prayer life. If you are not consistently praying, your spiritual life will suffer. The Bible tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Key ingredients to an active prayer life included setting aside a specific time for prayer. If you don’t set a specific prayer time, you will not be consistent. For many people, getting up an hour early is a good habit. Take time to praise God for who He is. Acknowledge Him as God and acknowledge His right to lead your life. When struggles arise, acknowledge His sovereignty along with your petitions. Proverbs 3:5 says, "acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths". Let Him direct you even when you can’t see the end result. When you acknowledge Him as God, you will be more able to thank Him for what He has done and is doing. Thanksgiving is critical. Confess sins and keep short accounts with God. Also intercede for others. God strengthens those who obey Him by praying for others. There is so much to say about prayer that time doesn’t permit me to cover here. I have a study on prayer at http://www.exchangedlife.com/bible.htm .
Make lifestyle changes. This is the final point I want to mention in this study. When I was studying programming, the first thing we learned is the acronym GIGO. It stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you put garbage into your mind, your spiritual life will be garbage as well. At the beginning of this sermon I quoted James 3:11, "Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?" Your life cannot be contaminated with garbage and be spirit filled at the same time. Not only must you renew your mind, but you must also guard your heart and mind from the world. Determine what is really of value in your life. Will you regret not watching MTV when you look back on your life? Does Jerry Springer add anything of value to your life? Weigh the worth of your movies, sitcoms and other sources of influence. Sometimes we sacrifice what is truly valuable in exchange for what is truly worthless.
I am not trying to tell anyone how to live, that decision is the responsibility of each individual. I can only give reference to my life. I struggled to give up things in my life that I didn’t feel like was necessarily wrong, but now that I look back, I can see the benefit of removing things that had messages counter to my value system. I believed that I could pick the good and ignore the garbage, but I no longer feel that way. I have said this many times before, but I believe it is worth mentioning again. The battle of temptation is not lost at the point of temptation. It is won or lost at the point we decide whether we are going to make that first compromise or if we will stand firm and focus on God. The first temptation to compromise is the point where we set the direction for our life and determine which path we will take.
It is an uphill battle. The stakes are high and our choice is critical. I believe that God puts the same choice before us that He gave Israel when they entered the promise land.
Deuteronomy 11:
26"Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:
27"the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today;
28"and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
We can make Him our God or we can make our desires god. A sinful lifestyle is a curse in itself. I lived by my desires before I knew Christ and I found no satisfaction. After I accepted Christ, I did not have direction and quickly went back to my old lifestyle. Once again, I pursued my own desires until one day I looked up and told God that I had no enjoyment in my life. For years I struggled trying to break free of the curse of my sins and could not. Finally as a broken man I began to seek the God who at the time seemed so distant. I did not give up and He delivered me from the chains that I could not break. Solomon said it best. "I did not deny myself any pleasure but my conclusion is that all is vanity" – empty and meaningless. Pleasure outside of God’s will always produces emptiness. Each choice of obedience since that time has only given me more fulfillment and more satisfaction. My prayer is that you commit to purity and trust God to be the One who fulfills.
Proverbs 10:22, "The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it."
