Sunday, November 17, 2013
PURER IN HEART (18)
Creating and Maintaining a Pure Heart - 2
Sanctify the Lord in your Heart
Deal with your impurities
a.
1 Pet. 3:15, “But
sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give
a defense to everyone who asks a reason for the hope that is in you.”
(NKJV)
The NASU says, “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,
always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an
account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;”
(1 Peter 3:15, NASB95)
NOTE: In examining the various Greek manuscripts we have available, some
render it one way or some the other way.
Older manuscripts lean toward the latter reading (NASB95).
Whether the text has reference to God or Jesus, regardless of the
difference, the point we are dealing with is the same – we need to
sanctify them (both) in our hearts.
b.
1 Pet. 3:15.
The word “sanctify” is defined as, “to feel reverence for or to
honor as holy. To hallow, to
regard as holy, to honor as holy.” (L&N, 88.27).
“1 to render or acknowledge, or to be venerable or hallow. 2 to
separate from profane things and dedicate to God. 2A consecrate things
to God. 2B dedicate people to God.”
(Strong’s Enhanced Lexicon) Its root is from the same Greek word
from which we get the words, holy and saint, and chaste (1 Pet. 3:2).
c.
Consider the character
of God.
i.
He is a God of purity -
Again, I am fearful that many in our society do not hallow God enough.
The reason so many are caught up in sin is because they do not
truly recognize the majesty of God, how awesome He truly is.
1 John 3:3 says after speaking of how when the Lord returns we shall see
Him as He is and shall be like Him.
Then we read, ““And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies
himself, just as He is pure.”
Notice how God is pure!
ii.
We must NEVER forget that we are in His presence!
Heb. 12:28-29 says that we serve Him acceptably with “reverence
and godly fear.”
iii.
Consider His majesty. In Revelation 4 & 5, we find
a scene of the throne of God in heaven.
Its majesty is described as well as the reverence of all
creatures around the throne.
They bow down and worship Him.
The four angelic beings said, “Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
(Revelation 4:8) WE see the majesty of God!
In Exodus 19 we find the children
of Israel at Mt. Sinai.
Exodus 19:10-20 describes the awesome scene as the Lord came down on Mt.
Sinai. Think of how awesome
that scene was. Friends, we
must realize that we are in the presence of Almighty God!
Serious contemplation of who He is and who we are will help us to
prepare our hearts for Him.
d.
Understanding these
things, the idea of sanctifying God in your hearts means that you set
up His throne in your heart.
As one source says, this does not mean to make Him holy because
He already is, rather it means to REGARD Him as holy and treat Him as
such.
IN Leviticus 10:3 after killing Nadab and Abihu for offering “strange
fire” the Lord spoke saying, “By
those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the
people I must be glorified.”
It means that you let Him RULE your life.
1 Cor. 6:19-20 speaks
of our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit.
We sometimes hear people in the religious world say, “Let Him be the
Lord of your life.” While
there may be misunderstanding as to how this happens, it IS EXACTLY the
sentiment we have in mind when we speak of sanctifying the Lord God in
your hearts. The idea is
SURRENDER!
e.
Draw near to God and He
will draw near to you
- “Draw near to God and He will
draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your
hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8)
f.
Let Him dwell within you.
Romans 8:9-11, “But you
are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is
not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but
the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him
who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from
the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit
who dwells in you.”
While this “dwelling” is misunderstood by many, it is a fact to be
considered. He IS to dwell
(influence) within us and that will only happen if we sanctify the Lord
God in our hearts.
II.
Deal with your
impurities –
a.
To sanctify God in our
hearts, we have to make room for Him.
That means clearing out everything that stands in His way.
All the dangers we have discussed.
b.
Isaiah 66:1–2 says, “Thus
says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is
the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For
all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the
Lord. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite
spirit, And who trembles at My word.”
If we invite God in it means the right things are in our heart,
and these cannot exist with those things which tear them down.
c.
Continually we
emphasize, Psalm 24:3-4 speaks of the one who ascends to the hill of the
Lord and stands in His presence.
He must have “clean hands and a pure heart.”
A part of sanctifying God is dealing with the impurities that
keep one out of God’s presence.
d.
2 Cor. 7:1 says, “Therefore,
having these promises, beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
e.
Repent!
Having made up your mind, you have to put away your idols –
i.
Think of Israel (Jacob)
as his family returned to Canaan – Gen. 35:1-4, they were instructed by
the Lord to go to Bethel and dwell there.
Jacob’s instructions were, ““And Jacob said to his household
and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among
you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.” (Genesis 35:2)
The gods were buried there.
ii.
This of Joshua’s
challenge to Israel to put away their idols – move ahead.
Joshua 24:14, before issuing the
challenge to choose (make up their mind) he told Israel to put away the
gods of Egypt and other lands.
iii.
1 Corinthians 10:14
says, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”
A passage that might have been dealing with actual idols that
were prevalent in Corinth, the point is worthy of further pursuit.
iv.
We have to deal with our
IDOLS. By an idol we may not
mean a statue of a supposed god (though that would be included).
An idol could be anything that stands between you and God.
Anything you choose to serve that hinders your putting God first.
1.
Paul said that
covetousness is idolatry.
Col. 3:5
2.
For some it might be
your wealth (like the rich
young ruler it was his wealth – Matt. 19:21-22)
3.
For others it might be
your pride and arrogance
4.
For others it might be
your entertainment
v.
IF we have anything that
is standing in the way of being pure in God’s eyes – DEAL WITH IT!
Many of us need to face some honest and hard decisions about what
we are doing with our time and resources.
We may need to give some things up.
We are going to talk more about this in our next lesson.
2 Cor. 6:14-17 – what accord has God with Satan?
1 Cor. 10:18-22 – Paul admonishes them to not drink the “cup of demons”.
He notes you CANNOT drink both the cup of demons and the cup of
the Lord. While
dealing with real idols, the point is to serve God you have to get rid
of your idols!
vi.
1 John 5:21 fittingly
ends, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
f.
Declare war on the devil –
i.
To the degree we
reverence God we need to despise the devil.
I am fearful that a problem that stands in the way of a pure heart is
that we don’t truly despise the devil as much as we ought to.
We need to remind ourselves of the damage he has done.
Brethren, it is time to become indignant. It is time to
become angry with intense feelings.
1.
Why is worldliness such
a problem in our lives? IT IS BECAUSE OF SATAN!
2.
Why do we not do right when we
want to? Why do we give into temptations?
3.
Why is it that when we
try to do right, Satan always places an obstacle in our way? IT IS
BECAUSE OF SATAN!
4.
Anytime you suffer, it
is because of him. When we say goodbye to our loved ones it
is because of Satan. (NOTE: NOT discounting our personal responsibility)
5.
When the church has to
withdraw from someone it is because of the devil. When we lose our
children and loved ones to the world, it is his work.
6.
When we see a society
that hates God and you because you believe in Him and try to do right it
is because of the influence of the devil in their lives.
The world lies under his sway! 1 John 5:19
7.
BRETHREN, if you are not
the Christian you ought to be IT IS BECAUSE OF SATAN.
ii.
BUT, DO YOU DESPISE HIM
ENOUGH TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
Realize the threat he poses to your life.
He does not want what is best for you or the world.
He wants to own you.
He promises you pleasure but at a cost.
iii.
It is time that you get
indignant about his influence in your life.
Despise him and everything he stands for.
Resist him with your all.
Eph. 4:27 tells us to not give place to the devil.
1 Peter 5:8-9 tells us to be sober and to resist him.
James 4:7, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you.”
And thus we can see some more things that will help us to
maintain a pure heart.
Hopefully, we will make up our minds to fully serve God.
And with that resolve, may we pursue the sanctity of God in our
hearts and remove whatever impurities hinder that.
But there is more. We
will continue our study next week.