Well I want this morning for
you to turn back to the epistle of Paul to Titus, and we're in
the first chapter once again. Last week we looked at the first
four verses, this week I want to concentrate on verses five
to 16, and particularly at the end on verse 15, the pure and
the defiled. When you look at the world in
which we live, and you try to understand it, it is important
to bear in mind what the scripture teaches us, what God teaches
us. The words of scripture, this
is the word of God. This is what God who has created
all things, who sustains all things, who is the judge of all
things, who is the eternal one, this is what he our God has said. And he's told us clearly, Christ
in his ministry said it over and over and over again. What
was the very first thing that Christ went preaching? You read
about it, Mark's Gospel. He went preaching what? What
did he preach? Be good people? No. He went preaching
the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. This is it. This is the prayer. Thy kingdom
come. He went preaching the kingdom of God. Now this world in which
we live, As I told you last week, and I cannot reinforce enough,
because it's so fundamental to understanding the way things
are, and the way things God has ordained to be in the future,
and how they will unfold, and the message of the book of Revelation,
never mind the rest of Scripture, all of which supports it. This
world in which we live is a scene of warfare now, between the kingdom
of Antichrist, which is the kingdom of Satan, and the kingdom of
God. And if you like, to use a modern
business term, every business has got to have a mission statement.
What are you there for? Why are you there? You've got
to have a mission statement. What are you there for? For excellence
in the face of disorder or something like that. Businesses will have
a mission statement. Well, I tell you, the kingdom
of Antichrist has a mission statement, just as the kingdom of God does.
The Kingdom of God, its mission statement, in a nutshell, is
the glory of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it's
for. The ultimate objective of the
Kingdom of God is the glory of God and the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ. But the Kingdom of Antichrist?
What's its mission statement? Answer? The achievement, the
attainment of some form of eternal good without the satisfaction
of divine justice. The mission statement of the
Kingdom of Antichrist is that everything will be alright and
we don't need to bother about this thing called the righteousness
of God. We don't need to bother about the righteousness of God.
We can be all right, we can be a happy place without bothering
everybody with this righteousness of God nonsense. We don't want
anything to do with the righteousness of God. That's the mission statement
of the kingdom of Antichrist. We'll all make one great big
worldwide society where everybody's happy and nobody talks about
God and his demands and we all do what we want and we let each
other get on with it. And that's the mission statement
of the kingdom of Antichrist. And how long has it been like
that? right from the fall in the Garden of Eden. Right in
Genesis 3, when Satan deceived Eve, and she fell, and Adam,
he took that fruit, because his wife had already taken it, he
took it, knowing exactly what he was doing, and he too. He
basically handed over the kingdom of God, which was this creation,
He had had the rule of that kingdom delegated to him in the Garden
of Eden before the fall, and in the fall he handed the rule
of it over to Satan, and ever since the battle lines have been
established. How? Because immediately they
had fallen, God regenerated Adam and Eve. I firmly believe that.
That's the picture in him slaying animal, a substitute, and shedding
its blood and clothing them with skins that God provided. Their
fig leaves that they had sewn together were no good. He provided
them with garments to cover them. Is that not a picture of redemption,
of what is the believer's position in the Lord Jesus Christ, clothed
with the righteousness of God in him? And ever since, God has
had his people God has had his kingdom, Adam, Eve, Abel, Seth,
Enoch, all the way down the generations, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
all the way down, David, Solomon, all the way down history, God
has had his people in this world. Israel, the nation, as it was
in its very best of times, were the people of God on earth. And against it was all the rest,
all the rest, all the rest who didn't believe God, all the rest
who didn't know God, all the rest who didn't know the redemption
that God had purchased for his people in his son. You see, God
has his people in this world. Who are they? They're the ones
that he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world.
They're the elect of God. Oh, so many religious folks don't
like that word. Oh, that's so unfair. well you
better get some scissors and chop your Bible to pieces because
it's everywhere it's absolutely everywhere even in all the types
and pictures of Israel in the Old Testament is the election
of God and those whom he elected he put in eternal union with
his son and in time he redeemed them in his son when Christ came
into this world to bear the sins of his people to go to the cross
of Calvary to answer the law's demands that the soul that sins
it shall die, and he died, the infinite one, in a human body,
shedding human blood, but infinitely precious human blood, to pay
the price of redemption. And in so doing, he justified
those who are sinners, just and justifier. God was just, the
sin was punished, the price was paid, but in the process, the
just one, God, was justifier of his people. And he sanctified
his people and set them apart in Christ, who unto us of God
is made wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
And he called his people, how? By the preaching of the gospel,
for it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who
believe. That's his method. And he gave
his people hearing ears, and made them willing in the day
of his power. And making them willing to hear,
he gave them hearts to believe and faith to do that which the
natural man cannot do, for the natural man cannot see the things
of the kingdom of God. For they're spiritually discerned,
he gave spiritual discernment, he gave faith, that gift of faith. and brought them to believe and
to rest in what we looked at last week, which was the faith
of God's elect. And it's a faith which, verse
four, to Titus, mine own son, after the common faith, it's
a faith that all the people of God hold in common. There are
no true believers who don't have the faith of God's elect. Let
me underline that. I'll say it again. There are
no true believers who don't have the faith of God's elect. You
see, I still hear people all around me with the best of intentions
and the best of sincerity, they talk about somebody and they
say, well, they don't believe this or that or the other. Oh,
they're the Lord's people. I'm sure they're the Lord's people,
but they don't believe this doctrine or that doctrine. I'm not talking
about minor secondary points. You know, I'm not talking about
whether women should wear hats in church or not. I'm not talking
about something secondary like that. I'm talking about the tenets
of the gospel. The tenets of the true gospel.
If they don't believe the tenets of the true gospel, they're not
the Lord's people. I don't care how sincere they
are. I don't care which church they go to and how long they've
been going there. They are not the Lord's people because they
do not hold the common faith of God's elect, which is the
faith of God's elect. So there's God's people, his
church in this world. And you say, well, where is it?
Where's the leader of it? Well, it's not a worldly organization.
It's not a political organization. You don't go to the Vatican in
Rome to find the head of the church. No. The church of God
in this world, the church of Christ, is his people. And God
dwells in the hearts of his people. And it might be a little group
like we are here today. It might be like some of you
out there on the internet right now. just ones perhaps on your
own, or ones and twos, or little tiny groups getting together
to listen to sermons that you've got from the internet. It might
be like that. But God has his people. They might be in larger
groups. I think very rarely are there
any of these groups that number more than 100, 150 people at
any one go. Very, very rarely. It's a very
rare thing. It really is. This is God's people
in this world. This is the kingdom of God. He
dwells in the hearts of his people. There he's 144,000 who dwell
on Mount Zion with the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
This is the people of God. So how in this world does God
keep his church pure? And three points this morning.
He gives biblical leadership. They exercise that leadership
according to biblical doctrine. And they, in a biblical manner,
defend the church against error. Why is that important? Because
Jesus said again and again in his earthly ministry that false
teachers will come. Wolves in sheep's clothing, you
know, not wolves in wolves clothing, because if a wolf comes along
looking like a wolf, the sheep will run away. But if a wolf
comes along disguised as a sheep, the people might be inclined
to believe him. Wolves in sheep's clothing, beware of them. Jesus
said again and again, Beware of them. And in the process of
God keeping his church pure, there is a polarization. There
is an opposite ends of the spectrum polarization. A black and white
polarization into what we read in verse 15, which is the pure
and the unbelieving and defiled. The pure and the defiled. So
first of all, biblical leadership. How does God protect his church? How does God keep his church
pure? this world? Answer, he gives
biblical leadership to his church. In verse 5, for this cause, says
Paul to Titus, I left you in Crete, that you should set in
order, in the church he means the things that are wanting,
the things that are not right, but they need putting right,
and I sent you there and there are many churches on this island,
it's quite a large island, and lots of people there, and he
says I want you to ordain elders in every city, in every place
where there is a church, ordain elders, presbyters, leaders,
bishops we might call them, but don't think about Church of England
bishops or Roman Catholic bishops or anything like that. Leaders,
as I had appointed thee. So Paul told Titus, established
leaders in every place where there is a church, spiritually
qualified men to do what? To lead the people of God in
right doctrine, to teach them right doctrine and truth, to
guide them when there are things to be decided which way to go,
to protect them from those that would seek to do them harm and
bring them into a state of unbelief. These men are frail earthen vessels
in themselves. Paul says we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. You know what an earthen vessel
is? Best illustration is if I went
down the garden, which I won't do now, and I've got lots of
plant pots, I've got some that are plastic and I've got some
that are very old terracotta pots. Now the plastic ones, if
I got one of those and hit it with a hammer, nothing would
happen, it would just bounce off. But if I got one of the terracotta
ones and I hit it with a hammer, it would just shatter into a
thousand pieces on the floor. That's how Paul describes the
men that are the leaders in the Church of Christ. And that's
exactly how those men feel. Earthen vessels, but God puts
within them that treasure from heaven. What is the treasure
from heaven? The gospel, sovereign grace,
and particular redemption. This is God's appointed way.
God doesn't set angels from heaven over companies of his believing
people. No, he sets fallen men, frail men, weak men, fleshly
sinful men, but men who in that earthen vessel have there the
treasure, the treasure of heavenly truth, to preach it, to teach
it, to guide it. And he says, I set you there
to ordain elders, appoint them, ordain elders in every city.
Ordain? What does he mean by ordain? The average person hearing
of this thinks about some great big Anglican ceremony where,
you know, the archbishop comes and all sorts of other bishops
all with their great big long flowing colourful robes and they
all join hands and they all utter mumbo-jumbo and put their hands
on the head of so-and-so and blah blah blah. No, it means
this. It means recognised publicly
in the churches. the suitably qualified men to
take the spiritual leadership of that group. And they've got
to have certain qualities. Look, if any man be blameless,
what does that mean? Sinless? No, of course not. They're
not sinless. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we don't
sin, we make God a liar, says John in his first epistle. No,
not sinless. But as far as society looking
on them is concerned, they're not criminals. They're not liars,
they're not cheats, they're not dishonest. They're blameless
in that sense of how you judge people in this world. You know
how it is. You know people all around you. You know ones that
fundamentally you feel you can trust and they're honest. And
you're aware of other ones that are around and about who... You
wouldn't trust as far as you could throw them, which is not
very far, because they're dishonest. Well, they're not to be like
that. They have to be of good character. Not sinless, but of
good character. Not polygamous, the husband of
one wife. In that Cretan society 2,000
years ago, it was very common for there to be a lot of polygamy,
multiple wives. But such a person to lead the
church must be the husband of one wife. not many, but one wife,
with faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, with obedient
children, got to have obedient children. The bishop must be
blameless, the elder, the presbyter must be blameless as a steward
of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine,
not, no striker, not given, here's that word again, Luca, not given
to filthy Luca, but it's not spelled like your name, is it?
This is money. not given to filthy money, not
greedy for money, not covetous for money. For as we read elsewhere,
it's the love of money. You know, people say, oh, money's
the root of all evil. No, it's not. Money isn't the root of
all evil. No, it's not. Whoever told you
that? This book didn't tell you that. It's not money that's the
root of all evil, it's the love of money that's the root of all
evil. The love of money in the human heart is the root of all
evil. The love of money is the source of so much crime, nearly
all of it. The love of money is the root
of all evil. Not selfishly greedy for money,
of a hospitable character, look, lover of hospitality, a lover
of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. This is what the characteristics
are to be of the one that Titus is to set up as a leader in a
local assembly to lead and guide in truth and to keep from evil. And above all, look at verse
9, he must be one who holds fast the faithful word as he has been
taught. You know there's that golden
chain, I think it's in one of Timothy's epistles, Epistles
to Timothy, about teach others who themselves will be able to
teach others also and so it goes on. You know, there was, I first
heard the gospel from Henry Mahan and Don Faulkner, the true gospel,
right? They taught me and I trust that in a way what I preach is
teaching others also and I trust that they will imbibe it and
go on to teach others also and generation after generation until
Christ comes again. This is how it is, holding fast
the faithful word as he has been taught, knowing the truth of
God and able to teach it. And these are gifts that God
bestows, not man. You know, there's so much thinking
in orthodox evangelical circles that this is a mechanical process. You set up a college, a seminary,
and you get all sorts of clever people with various degrees to
come and give a series of lectures. Gradually you will make, out
of an assembly of men, you will make good gospel preachers. And it just isn't the case. You
see... It's God that must bestow the
gifts, not man. God must do it. God must speak
in the heart of a man. These are gifts that are formed,
I believe, primarily under the faithful preaching of another
gifted man. How does God train future pastors? By putting them under the ministry
of a current pastor preaching the truth. I could cite, again,
Henry Mahan, his 50 year plus ministry, and the number of men
who are now faithful preachers of the gospel in North America,
who can point to the fact that their training was not in a theological
seminary, it was sitting in 13th Street, Ashland, Kentucky, listening
to Henry Mahan preach three times a week. That was what trained
them for the ministry. That was it. Not by some ecclesiastical
hierarchy, of government bestowing this authority on them. You know,
we get questioned, who gave you your authority? I told you last
week, the people who listen. The people who listen, that's
where the authority comes from. So these are men able and willing
to take the responsibility. Just turn over a few pages to
Peter's first epistle. Peter, first Peter chapter five. 1 Peter chapter 5 and the first
three verses where Peter writes there, the elders which are among
you I exhort and Peter calls himself an elder, I am also an
elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker
of the glory that shall be revealed. feed the flock of God which is
among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly, not for fit, here it is again, Luca, not for filthy
Luca, but of a ready mind, neither being as lords over God's heritage,
but being examples to the flock. This is what he exhorts them
to be, not to be obeyed because of some kind of artificial authority
that they've got, but to be willingly followed for their example, of
conduct and doctrine, to be willingly followed. You know, when you
raise your children and train them, you don't want them to
behave rightly above all because of the fear of what might happen
to them if they don't. I mean, you know, there is a
point where, you know, the Word of God says you've got to draw
a line sometimes and because of the heart of man and the heart
of children is exceedingly sinful, you've got to draw a line and
insist that that line is not crossed. You've got to do that.
what feels so much better is to lead by example and to encourage
the good and to train the good and encourage the good that they
might follow an example that they want to follow and that's
it with the the elder and the flock that he's put in charge
of and it's with biblical leadership to lead them in this world in
this kingdom of God in this battlefield against the kingdom of Antichrist
with biblical doctrine. Look, holding fast, verse nine,
the faithful word, as he's been taught, faith of God's elect. We saw it last week. Do you remember?
Do you remember? Tulip, total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance
of the saints. What's that? It's a very, very
neat way of summarizing the key biblical doctrine of salvation
that God has declared to his people. Faithful words, the faithful
word, all of these scriptures together expound, they state
clearly this doctrine of God. And fundamentally, the faithful
word, the faith of God's elect is submission to the absolute
sovereignty of God in everything. We put everything to the test
of God's word, to the law and the testimony. Isaiah 820, if
they speak not according to this word, why? It's because there's
no light in them. So don't do that. See that they
speak according to this word. Have the mindset of the noble
Bereans in the Acts of the Apostles, because when Paul preached, they
searched the Scriptures daily to see whether what they were
hearing was true. What does the Scripture say?
The sound doctrine of the Bible is our standard. And some will
think I'm preaching heresy now when I say this. but it's the
sound doctrine of the Bible, not of the confessions of faith. When a doctrinal point came up
with me 30 odd years ago now, all that the elders of that church
could do was wave in front of me pages and pages out of a confession
of faith. And all I was saying was, but
what does the scripture say? What does this book say? I don't
care what your revered committee of men, however old it is, says.
What does the scripture say? You see, there are many churches
who are so-called orthodox in doctrine and creed. they have
their 1689 Baptist Confession and the like, and they bow down
to it as if it has authority over the Scriptures, and they
have their stern eldership, whose job is to close ranks, and as
they say, to protect the pastor. Protect the pastor? If the pastor's
preaching the gospel of God's grace, I'd be more inclined to
set up a committee of elders to protect a lion that's hungry
and hunting for a wildebeest in the savannah. You don't protect
a lion! It's going to go out and get
its food. You don't need to protect a man who's preaching the truth.
Where on earth did that idiotic idea come from? No, no. It's to the word of God that
we bow. The faithful word. The faithful
word of God. The sound doctrine of scripture.
Elders, leaders, in protecting the church from error have to
wield the sword of the Spirit. Ephesians 6. 17, Paul writes
to the Ephesians, he's talking about the armor of God, and he
says, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God. What's the weapon that you use
to fight in this warfare? The word of God, the word of
God. Some issues arise in a church,
the elders role is to deal with it using The Scriptures. What does the Scripture teach?
What's the message of the Scriptures? This is where we come to. I remember
in a church that we were in some years ago, and they had a membership. And the membership was of those
people who could vote and determine where the church's money went
and all of that sort of thing. The idea was that you believed
certain doctrines that were compatible with what the church preached
and the message of the church. But some had an idea that we
had to introduce a thing called associate membership, which was
we can let people become members who don't really believe the
doctrines that we preach, but they like to come along because,
you know, we want to be friendly to everybody. so we'll let them
in. It never should have been allowed, because the Word of
God forbids it. The Word of God clearly forbids
it. It never should have been allowed. You read the letters
to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, and you look what Christ
commends, and what Christ issues a rebuke for, and what he tells
them they need to do to get better. You read those letters, and these
are the sort of things that ought to guide. No, How does God keep
his church pure? By biblical leadership, exercising
biblical doctrine. That's the sort of spirit that
they wield. And they actively defend the
church against error. Look in verse nine, towards the
end of it. Holding fast the faithful word,
as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. That isn't a
word that we use very often these days, is it? The gainsayers.
I'll tell you what the dictionary says. A gainsayer is one who
contradicts or denies what is alleged. An opposer. A person
who gainsays others. He opposes them. A disagreeable
person. That's what the dictionary says.
They don't just let it happen, they actively, positively go
and convince and exhort those who oppose. They oppose the opposers. In this world, the Kingdom of
God is opposed by the Kingdom of Antichrist. And Satan rallies
his troops in his kingdom of Antichrist into opposition to
the kingdom of God of every sort. His opposition comes right in
his mission statement that you don't need the justice of God
to be satisfied. We don't need satisfaction of
the justice of God. That's what Satan says, that's
his main thing. Has God really said, has God really said, in
the day you eat thereof you shall surely die? Yes, of course he
did. He said, you will die. God told them, Adam and Eve,
He told them that. And Satan comes along with his lies. The
opposition is in his mission statement, and he comes with
argument of gainsayers, those who oppose, with debate, with
subtle subversion, with violent opposition in some cases, with
persecution and martyrdom even for the people of God. In Acts
17, when Paul was preaching at Thessalonica, In verse 5 we read
of the Jews which believed not. Moved with envy at the effect
Paul's preaching was having, they took unto them, these Jews,
certain, listen, lewd fellows of the baser sort. You know? A group, a class, a type of people
that would be liable to be easily raised up to be violently opposing
what Paul was saying. They gathered a company. and
they set all the city on an uproar. This was the work of Satan. This
is the work of Satan's kingdom, trying to oppose the kingdom
of God that Paul was preaching with the gospel. Now Crete, this
island, was a civilization that was barely worthy of the label
civilized from all accounts. The true church there where Paul
had preached was surrounded It was even infiltrated. Look in
verse 10. There are many unruly and vain
talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose
mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things
which they ought not, for filthy... there it is again, Luca, for
filthy Luca's sake. These people there, of a Jewish
origin, there in the island of Crete, because they had spread
all over the Mediterranean world, they were there and they'd got
into the church, and they were subverting whole houses. were
infiltrating the church, especially those of a Jewish heritage, of
a Judaizing heritage. You know, like in Galatians?
Yes, believe the gospel of Christ, but you also need to be circumcised
and obey the law of Moses and need to add all of these works
to it. If you're to be a true believer, you need to obey the
law of Moses in order to show that you're a true believer and
this is the rule of life for you. This is what you've got
to do. No, that's not what the scripture teaches. Not at all.
Not at all. You see, it is indicative of
the fact, which is always the case, that in any church there
are wheat and tares. The wheat, the true, and the
tares, the weeds, that grow up amongst them. The Judaizers were
mixing gospel, grace, and law works, and they were pressing
their case with unsubtle force, going into houses, turning people
over. Even one of their own philosophers,
one of their own prophets, verse 12, one of their own prophets
has said this. This guy was a prophet known,
his name was Epimenides. And he, you can read the ancient
writings of the Cretan culture, and he says it was a civilization
that was a civilization of liars. There was a culture of lying
in everything that they did when they traded with one another.
The whole objective was to try and trick the other out of something. Does it remind you of another
society? I mean, there are societies exactly
like that around the world. I remember Cody Groover telling
me about In Mexico, he said, he'd lived in Mexico all his
life, and he said, in Mexico, he said, well, you meet a Mexican
for the first time, and he said, in virtually every case, he's
looking at you, and he's trying to work out a way he can trick
something out of you. Fundamentally, a dishonest, lying
society, is what he was saying. And he should know, he's lived
there. He's lived there all of his life. A culture of lying,
of untruth, of untrustworthiness. And it's increasingly becoming
the case in this society. This country used to be known,
two to three hundred years ago, you know, that historians of
dodgy credentials will look back and say how terrible things used
to be, and what a wonderful, enlightened society we are now.
Society generally was a truthful society. Yes, there were always
pockets of untruth, but the majority was a truthful society. Because
why? Because there was a large degree
of the fear of God. Why do societies not do that?
There's no fear of God before their eyes. But this society
was motivated by selfish covetousness. We have that equivalent today.
Most opposition to the true gospel, to the kingdom of God, do you
know where it comes from? society today, it comes from religion. Look at verse 16. It says in
verse 14, not giving heed to Jewish fables, they profess that
they know God, verse 16. They profess that they know God,
they profess that they're true believers, but in works they
deny him. Their fruit, their outworking
of what they say they believe, denies the true God. And here
we see it, that when the elder, the leaders in these companies
of the people of God in the island of Crete, and we can apply it
to us today, their job is not only to be men of the right character,
preaching the truth of the gospel of grace, applying the scriptures
to every situation, but in the process, defending that church
against the infiltration of evil that comes by the messengers
of Satan into those situations. It's to be actively done. Whose
mouths must be stopped. You stop them from teaching.
You don't give them free reign to come in and spout their lies
in the name of friendliness. You don't let it happen. You
don't let them come in and subvert whole houses, teaching things
which they ought not. Because what they're after is
money. That's what they're after. No. Rebuke them sharply, it says
in verse 30. Oh, that's not very Christian,
is it? Well, it's what Paul tells the elders to do. Rebuke them
sharply. that they may be sound in faith.
You don't make them better by tolerating them. You tell them
that this is what the word of God says and we won't have it
in the church. We're not going to give heed
to your Jewish fables. We're not going to do those things
because you see, this truth of God and protecting
the true church of God from the error of the kingdom of Satan
leads to a clear demarcation of polarization between the pure
and the defiled. Look at verse 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. What does that mean? That which
is of God and his kingdom is against the kingdom of Satan. And it's the pure against the
defiled in this sense. Believers are those that are
made pure. Believers are not pure in themselves,
of course not. In this flesh there dwells no
good thing, said Paul. In me, that is in my flesh, there
dwells no good. They're not pure in themselves.
We know that we're sinners and corrupt. You ask that the one
who grows closer and closer to God knows only this, that in
the flesh there dwells no good thing. that in me there is nothing
other than the corruption of sin and rebellion against the
living God. But believers are those who are
made pure. How are believers made pure? They're made pure by electing
grace, by being put into eternal union with Christ before the
beginning of time. He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He is the one who became man,
that at Calvary in a body, as we're going to remember in Bread
and Wine shortly, that he died, that his body was broken, that
his blood was shed. Why? To pay the price of redemption
for the sins of his people. So that Paul writes to the Ephesians
in verse 7 of chapter 1, in Christ we have redemption through his
blood. He's paid the price. He's paid
the ransom price. He's paid the price of liberty
from the dominion of sin through his blood. It was his blood that
paid the price. It was his blood that satisfied
the law's demands, the justice of God. The forgiveness of sins
is what we have as a result of that. According to the riches
of his grace, he has made satisfaction to the law of God. And in him,
in Christ, our substitute, coming as a man in a body prepared,
in Him coming and being made in that body the sin of His people. God made Him. Who knew no sin? The sinless one, to be sin. Why? That we, His people, might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. How pure is that? Is
that not the purity that God requires? The righteousness of
God in Him, and given a righteous nature in regeneration. So that
he says to the Ephesians, Paul says, put on the new man. Put
on that new man that you've been given, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. In the believer, there is a new
man. There is the old man of sin still
there, but there is a new man of righteousness and true holiness
created by God. One that partakes, as Peter says,
partakers of the divine nature. being made pure by the Word applied
to the heart. John 15 verse 3, Jesus said,
now you, my believing people, are clean through the Word that
I've spoken to you. The Word washes, the washing
of water in the Word, qualified for heaven. What qualification
do you need to go to heaven? pursue holiness follow holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord have you got the holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord have you have you not
in yourselves you haven't but according to the Word of God
in Christ if you're believing in him what work must we do that
we do the works of God believe on him whom he has sent said
Jesus and in believing you know that you have that righteousness,
that purity, that holiness by virtue of what He has accomplished. How you end this life is the
way you spend eternity. As Revelation 22 verse 11 says,
let the filthy continue to be filthy still. Let the holy and
the pure continue to be pure still. Your state in this life
when you die sets your state for eternity. Still sinners in
the flesh here and now? Yes, definitely. If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But
within the one believer, there's constantly a battle. As Song
of Solomon 6.13 says, we are a camp of two armies. What do
I see in the beloved? A camp, as it were, of two armies.
The old man of the flesh, which is sinful, and the new man of
the Spirit of God, created in righteousness and true holiness.
But the general tenor direction of the life of the believer made
pure by the redemption that Christ has accomplished is a pure life.
It's a real life of selfless love, of honest hope, of loving
righteousness and hating sin, of holding pure doctrine that
honors God and promotes godliness. Because Jesus said in the Beatitudes,
he said, blessed of God are the pure in heart. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. Ambitious for purity
of life with pure motives. That's what it is to be a child
of God, to be those made pure by God, with a gentle nature
to others, but utterly intolerant of doctrinal error. I'm just
about out of time, but unbelievers are those who are unwilling to
submit to God's word, and therefore they're defiled. That sounds
a bit harsh, doesn't it? They're only exercising their
own free will, aren't they? They're only being reasonable. No, God calls them wicked. Why?
Why are they wicked? Because in unbelief you are calling
God a liar. Is it okay to call God, who cannot
lie, a liar? Is that okay? No, of course not.
It's wicked to call God a liar. If you don't believe him, you're
calling God a liar. That's wickedness. There are
many who don't believe God, who in outward morality and actions
towards their fellow men do many good things. And in many cases,
they often seem better than those who claim to be believers. I
mean, you just compare the Apostle Paul with what he was before,
the Pharisee Saul. I imagine in outward religious
holiness, people would say, well, I can't tell much difference.
Some would even say that the Pharisee Saul was more holy.
See, it's not about what you see on the outside, it's what's
on the inside, defiled in fallen human nature, defiled, as David
said, in sin did my mother conceive me, in sinful deeds constantly,
but mostly because of being outside of Christ. Only Christ can make
a sinner pure. Only Christ can. Two polarized
states. There's no mixing of the two.
For the pure, everything is pure. We saw some time ago in Ecclesiastes
chapter 9 verse 7, to the believer, God now accepteth thy works,
even with all of your flaws and your deficiency. God now accepts
your works. Gospel truth is a sweet taste. Worship is in spirit and in truth.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We have no confidence in the
flesh. A man who is pure by gospel grace sees gospel purity in many
things all around, in fellow believers, but for unbelievers,
for mere professors, for religious legalists. Legalists, what are
they trying to do? They're trying to attain purity
by their own efforts. And this word, This verse, this
word of God, it says they are defiled. They see only defilement
in others. Spurgeon used an illustration.
He said it's like a buzzard and a dove flying over a field in
which there is carrion, dead meat, lying on the ground. The
buzzard sees it and the buzzard judges it and the buzzard goes
down to eat it. The dove, the dove, not interested, just doesn't
see it, doesn't see it. Those who are wandering around
claiming to be the true people of God, but judgmentally looking
at others, judgmentally looking for things that they expect to
see in others, are they not like that? No. The role of true biblical
elders is to defend the true church from this kind of error
by sound doctrine and clear correction and silencing of that which opposes
it. What about you? Are you among
the pure or among the defiled and unbelieving? Are you truly
discerning the body of Christ or not? Remember, that's the
qualification for communion. If you find yourself wanting
in respect of purity, the purity of the gospel, just one verse
to close. Zechariah 13, verse one. There
is a fountain. In that day, there is a fountain
opened for sin and uncleanness. Where is that fountain? It's
the cross of Christ. It's the blood of Christ. Amen.