Purity in Christ

[0:00] What is it that occupies our thinking? What is it that we're thinking about and dwelling upon? What do our thoughts dwell upon? Are they those things that Paul urged us to think about? Or are we at times guilty of letting our mind be saturated and absorbing those things that come and bombard us from the world around us?

[0:22] Does our mind think on those things that would be honouring to the Lord? In 1 Timothy 3 verse 9 it talks about having a pure conscience. Do we have those things in our thinking? Every one of us can think and take a stop take perhaps of where we are at. Are we thinking according to heaven's plan, heaven's agenda, according to God's will and God's priorities for our lives and faith's priorities and purposes?

[0:51] Are our thought patterns what we think about and dwell on and spend our time worrying about or concentrating on? Are they those things that would be pleasing to the Lord or not?

[1:03] Our understanding, our choices. The word of God tells us to not be double minded. We can all as Christians sometimes have a conflicting sense of where the world's telling us one thing and the society we're living in and God's telling us another.

[1:22] And we all need to be strong and steadfast and be single minded. Not to be double minded. As the word of God urges us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

[1:36] As the Lord tells us and all of those things that might be inclined to worry about God's going to take care of them. Make up your mind to serve God and let the Holy Spirit guide us. Let the Holy Scriptures be our guide.

[1:52] It's interesting isn't it? The Holy Spirit and the Holy Bible, the Holy Scriptures. God's word is focused on holiness. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of holiness. One of the names of the Holy Spirit.

[2:07] So it's God's will, it's God's desire for us that we apply our minds to wisdom. That we renew our minds. That we apply our will and direct our thoughts in ways that please God.

[2:17] As we grow more and more in His word and learn more about it. We can put it into action and apply it. And it will affect our will power. It will affect our habits. It will affect our mindset.

[2:29] As the word of God tells us to bring every thought into captivity to Christ. That's challenging isn't it? Every single thought to bring it into captivity to Christ.

[2:40] I guess you could think about a cowboy with a lasso catching something. You know, we've got to harness that and bring it into captivity. Capture every thought and put it under God's control.

[2:51] Under Christ's control. Into captivity to the Lord Jesus. So we see there's a pure mind. A purity of mind that God urges us to have. And secondly, there's a purity of heart too.

[3:02] Look at, for example, 1 Timothy 1 verse 5. It talks about a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. A pure heart. 1 Peter 1 talks about loving one another with a pure heart, fervently.

[3:18] 2 Timothy 2 verse 22 talks about those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And of course we know that Christ commands those that are pure in heart.

[3:30] We can hide God's word in our heart. We can have God's word written in our heart. When you think about a person's heart, what do you think of?

[3:41] Think about what they love. What they're attached to. What they've got an affection for. What they're devoted to. Is your heart connected with Christ?

[3:52] Is Christ in your heart? It talks about that Christ will dwell in our hearts by faith. And there's a wonderful purifying of the heart by faith. Is our heart in tune with Christ today?

[4:06] Does he have your heart? Or is it just, maybe he's got your head, you know, maybe he's got some, you've got some knowledge of him, but you don't have him as your personal saviour, as someone you know personally.

[4:21] What is it that our hearts are attached to, that they're set upon? What is it that we love? Is our affection set on things above? God will give you the power to do that. God will give you the power and his ability within yourself.

[4:34] It tells us that God sets us apart as holy. God's people are holy people. You know, sometimes we, in reality, as we live life, we don't always feel it, but God says you are holy.

[4:46] He calls you saints. He calls you holy ones, which is what saints means. And he makes us holy by virtue of what he has done. But of course there's that practical holiness too, lived out in the life as our heart grows yielded to him and goes more and more in his way.

[5:03] And it's interesting, when David cried out, Create in me a clean heart, O God. I think it was just after he had committed an abominable sin. We might feel at a complete end, a complete end of ourselves, that we're ashamed of ourselves, that we can cry out like David did, Create in me a clean heart, O God.

[5:24] And God hears that prayer. And as you have that clean heart, that purity of heart, the Bible urges us also to guard your heart. Keep your heart. Guard it. Let it be guarded.

[5:34] As we grow through life and there's various relationships, younger ones, as you have different friendships and relationships through life, guard your heart. Choose those relationships, those friends that will be honouring to the Lord.

[5:49] Choose friends for your life. Choose a lifetime partner, a wife, a husband, that will follow God's way, that you can be honouring to the Saviour, as you have a heart that is in tune with the Saviour together.

[6:04] So watch your relationships. Don't hang around the wrong crowd. There's some healthy restrictions. I was going to picture, for example, as you could imagine, a boundary around a road, and a road barrier that goes around the edge of a steep cliff.

[6:19] You see those guiding rails that go around, those turning roads up in the hills. And they put guardrails. God's Word is a guardrail. It's not to stifle us or to make life difficult for us, but it's to protect us.

[6:36] It's to make us have a life that is right and blessed. And likewise too, when God says things that we should not do, it's like the guardrail that's protecting the road users.

[6:49] Now, do we go really close to that guardrail and just test ourselves, how close can I get to that dangerous area of messing with things that I know I shouldn't?

[7:00] Or when you see a guardrail, you try to keep away from it, don't you? You try to keep, when you're a road user, when you're in a car, you want the driver of that car to keep away from the edge of the road, not to test the boundaries and to go close to the edge.

[7:14] Steer clear of that which we know is wrong. Don't trust in your own flesh and say, how far can I go? How close can I go? God's Word urges us to be sanctified, to be a holy people.

[7:26] And how can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed to the Word of God. So God's Word will help you have that clean heart, that clean mind.

[7:37] Receive with meekness the implanted Word, the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls. Is our mind receptive to the Word of God? Let it meditate in the Word of God, day in, day out.

[7:51] Let the Word of God saturate your mind, your thinking, so that it affects your mind, your heart, your affections, your choices, your will. And so you'll choose that right path for life. And keep yourself pure.

[8:03] 1 Timothy 5.22, Paul tells Timothy, keep thyself pure. Keep yourself pure. Maintain that holiness. Maintain that purity of walk. And as our mind and heart is truly turned to the Lord, and tuned in to what God wants for us, it's going to affect everything about our life, our motives, our choices, our actions, pure religion and undefiled.

[8:27] It's going about a life that is active for the Saviour, doing the work of God around the world that we live, and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. It's going to be a lived out life of purity.

[8:40] Who do you belong to? Is he your king? Is he truly your king? Or is it just lip service that you say, I'm a Christian? Purity is something beautiful.

[8:52] It's something that should be protected and cherished and honoured. And it's like that too with the Christian life. It's something beautiful. When you choose to live a life that's a life that is honouring to the Saviour.

[9:04] You choose purity of your thinking and of your heart. And really it's yielding to what the Lord wants for us. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin.

[9:15] How do we get this holiness? Hebrews 12.10 tells you that you can be a partaker in his holiness. You can be a partaker. So we can be holy in our choices, in our heart, desires.

[9:29] Be holy in all that you do, says Peter. In who you are. In what you do. You have been set apart for God. And it's going to show.

[9:40] Just lastly, it's going to show in your life. There's going to be an evidence. It's going to be evident. There's going to be an evidence that you belong to the Saviour. It's a union with Christ. It's Christ in you.

[9:51] It's you in Christ. It's that unity with him. Amen.