Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to take a look at some scripture from….
1 Pet 1:22-23
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:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
In the church we are undergoing a purification process. The word purify means to remove contaminants from.
Have you ever had to change an oil filter on your vehicle before? That is exactly what an oil filter does, it purifies the oil. Any tiny pieces of dirt or metal causes wear and tear on that engine. Spiritually speaking, it’s biblical truth that purifies us. Purify means to clear from imperfections or free from anything that debases or pollutes or contaminates. The Apostle Peter is teaching that they had purified their souls in obeying the truth.
If you’re going to obey the truth, it means to comply with the commands, directions, or the authority of the teachings of scripture.
If you’re going to obey, it means you’re going to comply with the commands of those who are your authority, whether it’s a dad, a husband or an apostle of Jesus Christ leading the church.
If you are truly a follower of Jesus Christ, you’re going to have a desire to hear his Word, to trust his Word, submit to his Word, and to surrender to Him.
When you surrender to Him, it means that you are no longer resisting His will and His purpose for you.
All of us have grown up in the world, and we know what it means to resist something. As I’ve always said, the church is like a spiritual reform school. We are reforming from our ways to the ways of Christ. When we look at the cross and see everything that Jesus did to save us and to take our sins away, that should cause you to want to obey Him because you recognize His great love for this world.
Children are supposed to obey their parents in all things, especially their dad because he is the head of the household. A child is not a mature adult. Their decisions are made by the parent. The dad is the ultimate authority in the home over the wife and the children and what he says goes. The children are supposed to follow the commands or guidance of those who are their authority.
If you are going to follow somebody’s command, you will do what you’re instructed and told to do it. It’s just like having a boss at work that you obey. Like we’ve already talked about, a wife cannot usurp over her husband because he is the head of the household. Children are not supposed to usurp over their parents.
Peter is talking today about purifying your souls in obeying the truth.
The word purify and sanctification are synonyms. Sanctification is the action or process of being freed from sin or purified.
Imagine growing up in a home somewhere, but you don’t have a dad. What is a child to do? He might go out and listen to all kinds of people who are caught up in the ways of the world and leading them off in the wrong direction in life.
Jesus taught that as a dad you know how to give good gifts to your own children. A dad is responsible to preach God’s word to his children. It’s by God’s truth that we are sanctified. It’s from your dad that we learn the right path and the wrong path to go.
How many parents tell their children each day that they’re doing a good job when they’re doing the right thing? It’s also the responsibility of the parent to correct their children when they’re doing what’s wrong.
That is a responsibility of authority in the home. The reason why you correct others is because you care about them. If there is no correction I don’t think there is any love at all for the other person.
Sanctification is a process that we go through in the church. It is a process of correction. We are learning the way that God wants us to go rather than the way that we want to go. Although we may make a mistake along the way, God gives us grace to keep going and to get back up and it try it again.
A lot of people don’t understand what divine mercy and grace really is. It’s not a one strike and you’re out kind of deal. Those are not the teachings of Christ.
I personally have worked with all kinds of kids that needed more than that to learn and grow into a person who would be a benefit to society.
When we come to the church and hear the word of God preached, it helps us all to understand the error of own way. This is why we need to hear the Word of God preached often. Without the Bible in the house, without it daily in our life, it’s like taking a dad completely out of the home. Without a dad, a person is an orphan.
Sanctification is a process. The one thing that prevents that process from happening is a refusal to confess or to admit sin and faults. As soon as you confess your sins, God can forgive us, and then we can attempt to get back on the path that we were on in the past.
The Lord allows us to do numerous u-turns. I live in the community where they’ve been doing u-turns on our Main Street ever since I’ve been here for 20 years. God allows a lot of u-turns in our life. It happens when you admit your fault and get forgiven. There is Grace available to do that.
John 17:17 it says sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
2nd Thessalonians 2:13
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
You have to believe what the Bible teaches in order to do what it says. In the book of Hebrews it teaches that without faith it is impossible to please God. I really feel that when you believe the truth of scripture you’re going to look at what it says and realize that you are in error because that is what the Bible is there to do. It’s there to convict us of our faults.
If you truly believe what the Bible says, you’re going to admit your sins, whether it’s one, or 70 x 7 sins. If you truly have faith you will admit your faults. When we confess our sins to God we’re admitting the fact that we are wrong and that we want to try it again.
I’ve always enjoyed balancing things on my nose. It took me many years to perfect this strange habit. One day I picked up a broom and put it on my nose but it immediately fell off. I dropped so many things on the floor that I can’t even begin to count them but I tried it again over and over and over till I was able to do it.
God gives us grace to learn to become better, in whatever it is you do. I eventually learned how to take a big chair and put it up on my chin and I can balance it almost indefinitely now, but it didn’t happen without practice or overnight.
Christianity requires practice. Practice is what makes perfect.
Some people think that Christian’s are perfect, and if you make a mistake it’s over. That is not true. I’m glad I’ve never been that way with my own children. They’ve made a lot of mistakes growing up but I’ve always been forgiving and helpful with them. Sadly there are people out in society who are very unforgiving and unmerciful. These are not the qualities of God.
The Christian faith is learning not to give up. The Christian faith is about learning to get back up. If you never get back up, if you never get forgiven and try it again, you will never know the liberty of succeeding!
I’ve been drinking coffee for many years. Do you know how many times I burnt my tongue, my mouth and even my hands on hot coffee? I don’t think I can count the times. It hasn’t happened to me for a long time now because I finally learned how to do it.
I’m kind of convinced all these years that nothing really changes in your life until you first want to learn how to do something. That’s ultimately what we do in the church, it’s a spiritual school. We’ve come to hear the preachings and teachings of Jesus and bring an open heart and mind to allow ourselves to be converted. The interesting thing is that when you eventually learn how to follow Jesus and to do his will, you will treat others the same way that you treat Him.
When we learn the scriptures, when we learn how to obey Christ, our lives and activities are going to reflect upon our neighbors and our family.
The Apostle teaches,..
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren….
Ultimately, the Christian faith all comes down to love for God and then taking that love and showing it to others in this world.
You need to understand, that the world’s concept of love is very different than what is found in the Holy scriptures. In the days of Noah, people were given in marriage but they were still destroyed in the flood. The world’s concept of love compared to Christian love are very different. Christian love will always have truth embedded within it. You cannot separate love from truth. If it’s not true it’s a lie, and the devil is the father of liars. Therefore the devil does not understand real love.
In the world today, people are caught up in lies and they’re being deceived and deceiving others. It’s not about truth. In the church it’s a combination of the two. Love and truth are like wearing a left and a right shoe. If you’re missing one of them you are going to be hobbling down the dirt road.
Unfeigned love of the brethren means that you love them sincerely. It’s not a wishy-washy fake kind of love like when people gather together on the holidays and give hugs and tell each other how much they love one another while the truth is that deep down in their hearts, they could care less if they see each other till next year.
There were people who cared so much for the Apostle Paul that they were ready to lay down their own necks for him. That is love.
The Apostle Peter teaches us to love one another with a pure heart fervently. Once again, we love others with the truth. Judgment begins at the house of God but there has to be mercy and love and forgiveness attached, otherwise it’s just judgment.
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Jesus is the way the truth and the life. God’s word is truth. God’s word will remain forever. God’s word is alive. The reason why I say that is Christ is eternal and so is his Word.
Jesus taught Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. That’s about going through a rebirth process in life. You can be 70 years old but we all need to become children all over again. We have to relearn the things that we learned wrong. We need to turn to the truth found in our heavenly father.
As a lord Jesus taught, and I shall be a Father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters say at the Lord Almighty.
Ultimately if we want this to happen, like Moses, we have to come out and be separate. We must go through that process of being born again in our hearts and minds. It starts with baptism, but that’s not the end. It’s like a baby who’s taking their first step. Eventually they learn to walk like we do with Jesus.
Did you ever catch your own child when they’re about to fall down? In the church we need to learn to help each other. We need to catch each other when we fall down. We need to show each other love and forgiveness.
The Apostle Paul had so much faith and trust in God that he knew that the Lord would complete the thing that he had started in the church. Sometimes it takes a little while. It requires patience and love and forgiveness.
I think that’s where I’m a stop right now. But Lord willing I’ll talk to you some more tomorrow. Till then bye-bye everybody
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 