Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to look at some scripture from 1st Timothy Chapter 1 but before we do that…
I wanted to tell you that I’ve been pretty much self-employed almost my entire life. In regards to the scripture that we are going to be talking about today, I wanted to tell you a little bit about my past.
One time many years ago somebody approached me and wanted me to sell water purifiers. These are the purifiers that you hook up to your sink and the water runs all the way through them and then it comes out of the purifier and then you drink it.
Well this man who showed me the purifiers pulled out a glass full of muddy water and he hooked it up to the purifier and ran it through it. This water was terrible-looking and I’m sure that there’s no one who would have ever wanted to attempt to drink it, but after it went through the purifier he took a drink of that glass. It has been completely purified. In many cases they claim that the water that comes out of the purifier is purer than the stuff that comes out of your tap.
I really enjoy a cold glass of pure water. More than that, I like somebody who has a pure heart.
1 tim 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
Jesus Christ wants us to become pure in our hearts. That means you’ve got to filter off all those things that are displeasing to him. We learn what displeases him through the teachings of Holy Scripture. The holy scriptures are like a water purifier.
We are all a bunch of wretched sinners who come to the church and we put ourselves through that purifier, God’s Word. Everything that is disobedient and sinful in our hearts is being filtered out by the truth.
Impure water doesn’t taste very good does it. Many people hookup a filter onto their vacuum or put one on their furnace in their home to filter the air because they like the smell of that fresh Chrisp oxygen as it permeates their home. When you’re filtering something your cleansing it from impurities.
An impurity is something that defiles you. Defile means to corrupt the purity or perfection of. Defilement goes against love.
Titus 1:15
15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
Notice that someone who is defiled their mind and conscience has turned against the love for Christ and the things that he taught.
The conscience is defined as the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action and to follow the dictates of conscience.
The more that you have been taught and instructed in God’s holy word the greater your conscience will be. The reason why is you know what is right and wrong according to God and His will and purpose for you. Someone who is defiled is turning away from what they know they should be doing.
To be honest with you all, it is never ever good to go against your conscience and what you know that you’re supposed to be doing.
Hebrews 12:15
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
When someone confesses and admits their sin the Bible teaches as Christ forgives us we’re supposed to forgive them. Bitterness does not forgive. It is a very cold hard unmerciful feeling that one really does not want to possess if they claim to be a Christian.
Jesus teaches that if a brother says I repent to forgive him. If you can’t do that, you yourselves you will not be forgiven by God. In that state I believe prople partake of Holy Communion to their own damnation because they don’t understand how much Christ loved them and died to take their sins away.
The Apostle warned that there would be those who partook of communion to their own damnation.
If they cannot forgive then they will not be forgiven by God. In order to get forgiven one must confess and admit their faults to God and others. Defilement is the result of an unforgiving and unmerciful heart.
Hebrews 13:4
“Marriage is honourable in all, and .the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”
Whatever happens in the bedroom is undefiled before God because it is sanctioned by God through holy matrimony. In a marriage your body becomes the property of your wife and the wife becomes the property of the husband. What happens in the bedroom is a private matter between the two of you and is completely undefiled.
Purify from one dictionary means to remove contaminants from. In another dictionary means to clear from material defilement or imperfection or to free from guilt or moral blemishes or too free from undesirable elements. The last dictionary says to purify something is to remove dirt, chemicals or anything else that it is contaminated with.
Think about all the military personal that are out on the oceans every day. Water is very heavy and there’s too much weight involved to carry fresh water with them on their trips so they have to filter the water from the ocean. Before it’s drinkable it has to be cleansed. God desires our heart to be cleansed. To be pure and undefiled.
Matt 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
1 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.
Imagine washing your socks at the laundromat and they come out nice and clean. In a sense they’ve been cleaned and purified. What you certainly don’t want to do is to wear those clean socks outside without your shoes on and get them all full of mud all over again.
1 John 1:7 – But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
As I’ve always said sin is the opposite of love and love is the opposite of sin. God wants to cleanse our hearts from sin and the things that defile us so that we can walk in perfect charity towards him.
2 Corinthians 7:1 – Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Cleanse means to rid of impurities.
Each of our hearts need to go through a purification process every day.
To love God perfectly we need to become perfectly obedient to him in the things that he teaches us and commands us in the Holy scriptures. We have to cleanse ourselves from disloyalty, unkindness, unthankfulness, a lack of mercy, and ultimately a lack of charity. We must learn to love God perfectly out of a pure heart and pure mind. We must learn to love the brethren perfectly with a pure heart fervently. It is that love that forgives, confesses and reconciles.
1 Peter 1:22 – Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently:
When you love others fervently you will be quick to forgive others and to confess your own faults as Jesus does for us. This is what truly defines a disciple of Christ.
John 13:35 – By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
1 Peter 4:8 – And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
For a moment let’s talk about what it means to have unfeigned love.
Unfeigned means genuine or sincere. It isn’t artificial or false.
There are people who were coming out to hear Jesus preach who were feigning themselves to be just men. They really didn’t care or love Jesus they just wanted to hear something out of his mouth so they could get rid of him.
On the exterior they appeared righteous and loving and kind but the truth was on the insides of their hearts there was coldness, blackness and dark.
Unfeigned means heartfelt and sincere.
Sincere means wholehearted, heartfelt, hearty.
Sincerity is the virtue of one who communicates and acts in accordance with the entirety of their feelings, beliefs, thoughts, and desires in a manner that is honest and genuine.
Unfeigned means genuine in feeling.
Once again let’s look at this verse .
1 Peter 1:22 – Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren….
James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Here is another passage of scripture that deals with the purifying of your hearts. You have to cleanse your hearts and rid your hearts of the things that are displeasing and disobedient to Christ. If you are incapable of doing that you remain in the state of defilement before God. We can come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need but God wants us to walk in the truth. As I’ve always taught in my household he wants us to love and to obey and to serve him. That is the essence of the Christian faith.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Heb 10:22
22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
God wants to cleanse our consciences, but are you willing to walk in the new life that he gives us through his grace?
1 john 3:3
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Anybody who claims to be a Christian and expects that they’re going to be in Heaven someday with the Lord Jesus Christ it’s going to purify themselves. A pure-hearted person is a person who loves God perfectly. A pure-hearted person is a person who is perfectly obedient. That is something that anybody who professes Christianity should be striving towards in their life.
2 cor 7:1
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
The simplistic definition for the word holiness is charity. If you are walking in perfect love then you are holy. Remember that we are supposed to love God first and our neighbors second. This is because God wants us to love our neighbors in truth that comes from the scriptures.
Remember that sinners love other sinners but that doesn’t mean they’re going to heaven. Love in and of itself does not mean that somebody is going to inherit eternal life. In order to enter in through the Gates of Heaven We Must Love Christ to become obedient to the things he taught and gave the church. To love our neighbor means to speak the truth with them the things that you have been taught by Christ. And we need to purify our hearts in the same way that a water purifier cleanses the water from any kind of impurities.
To obtain eternal life we need to love Christ and to become obedient to the things he’s teaching and give that same exact love that you’ve been instructed in to other people. In order to do this we need to cleanse our hearts.
Ps 51:10
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
ps 24:3
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
Today I’m going to ask you are you truly sincere about your faith in Jesus? The reason why I asked that is because the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart. Is the love that you have for Christ true and real that leads to obedience and submission? That is a love that lasts forever!
That’s it for today but Lord willing we’ll talk to you some more later on till then bye-bye everybody
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 