Letting Your Light Shine Through Purity

Introduction

If you wish for an opening passage, you may turn your Bibles to Genesis the first chapter. And we will look at a verse there in just a few moments. We’ll be going to several passages throughout this morning. So I invite you to be opening your Bibles and get ready to turn in your Bibles as we look at the Word of God. We do have many who are visiting with us today from all sorts of places, some from right here, some from all across the country, maybe even some of those from out of the country. We’re glad that you’re here. We’re glad that you’re here, that you’ve come together for the express purpose to worship and to praise our great God. To give thanks to him, remembrance of what our God does for us, that he has done for us, what he’s continuing to do for us, and what he will do for us ultimately.

And now as we look to his word.

Excellent presenter of God’s Word. And we’re very glad, very much looking forward to Brother Dixon being with us for this special series Sunday through Wednesday. We’ll have our normal service times on Sunday. And then Monday through Wednesday, we’ll be meeting each evening at 7.30. There are cards for this in the foyer. Pick up some of those. Invite your friends, invite them to come and to hear about the love of God and how that should inspire us, light our hearts on fire, and how we can show that love for our God in our lives. Fire and light are also a part of my lesson today. This past Wednesday, I was asked to speak at one of the congregations in Lakeland on this topic. They had been going through the summer and talking about through the summer about letting our lights shine.

The topic that I was given to speak about was letting our lights shine through purity. And first of all, I just want to say I very much appreciate the title. The very topic that was given, because it’s an unfortunate thing that so many times purity is approached, and I’ve done this, but purity is seen in a negative light. And what I mean by that is this.

Do not take that into your body, it will defile you. Now I want you to first of all understand, I agree with each and every one of those things. There’s a reason. We’ll come back to that in our lesson today that we do want to stay away from certain behavior. That yes, sin defiles. Sin makes us impure. But the topic given is a positive. The topic given of this idea of purity and letting our light shine through purity is that purity is a positive thing. It’s not simply staying away from some bad things, it is being something that God wants and that God intended it for us to be. And that will be how we approach the topic this morning, and I hope it’ll be of some benefit to each and every one that is here.

1. We Were Once Pure

Let’s first of all focus on the fact that we were once pure. I asked you to turn to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26 of the passage that you already know, but I want to focus on it again in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26, that then God said, when he was going to make man, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Oftentimes we use this verse, and rightfully so, to talk about the spiritual nature of man. We know from pastors like John 4 and verse 24, God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. And so the fact that we are made in the image of God certainly speaks to the fact that we are spiritual beings as well, as opposed to animal creation.

We have this aspect of us. But I want you to notice that when he says, let us make man, he not only says, let us make man in our image. He also says, let us make man in our likeness. Now, maybe he’s just saying the same thing twice. I don’t really think so. I promise you, this will be the only time today that we will focus on the definition of a word, but I do want to go through this definition of Demut, the word that is used for the likeness there in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26. Theological word book of the Old Testament gives it as the word likeness rather than diminishing the word image, actually amplifies it and specifies its meaning. Man is not just an image, but a likeness image.

He is not simply representative, but representational. Man is the visible, corporal representative of the invisible, bodiless God. Demut guarantees that man is an adequate and faithful representative of God on earth. Think of that. We’re not simply representative. That is, we’re all these spiritual beings living here on the earth. And since God is a spirit, we are representative of God here on the earth. We are also representational. Or if we’re just going to boil it down to common language, we were once like him. We were created in his likeness. And what that means is that as God is, so were we at one time. Now let me let’s understand. And those of you who are in the godly men and women class, you already know where I’m going in this lesson.

This is just hopefully amplify and expound on those things a little bit further. We are not talking about that when man was created, man had all knowledge. We certainly know that was not the case. He did not have all power like God. But he was created in God’s image and as God’s likeness. Well, how was he like God then? How is God described in the scriptures? We can go through many scriptures. We’ll just focus on one in Psalm 89 and verse 14. This is said of God. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before you. And extolling the virtues of God and relying on God for deliverance, the character of God is appealed to over and over and over again in the scriptures.

When you read that God is love, that is put there for reason. It amplifies, it encourages us to love each other and to love God because God Himself is love. When you read that God is faithful, that is put there for reason. You trust in God because you recognize God keeps his promises. He is faithful. God is righteous. He always does the right thing. And because he is righteous, he is therefore just. Loving kindness, mercy, or the idea of grace, you may even say, flows from God. That’s who God is. And that’s who God has always been. And so when man was created in the image of God, according to his likeness. Then what that means is, well, not only was man created with a spiritual aspect to him, but that spiritual aspect was completely pure.

Man was righteous because God was righteous, and man was created in his image. Man was holy because God is holy. Man was typified by love because God is love. Man was just, man was faithful. All those things you could say of God, man was.

2. Sin Made Us Impure

Sin made us impure. Sin tarnished all that. Sin changed all that. While we were once in the likeness of God, sin changed everything. We see how that has played out in the very first man in his sin, where in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 24, we see that man had to be separated from God. Man had to be cast out of the garden because he was no longer like God. God who is holy, God who is righteous, God who is pure, God who is all those things, could not be in the presence of sinful man anymore. A passage that we often go to, and you may wish to turn to in your Bibles. I’ll put it on the screen. Romans chapter 3 and verse 23 amplifies this as well.

For all have sinned. We oftentimes use this from the standpoint of why we all need salvation. Because we have all sinned. Paul’s not there talking about that we all sinned just when Adam sinned. No, he’s saying we all sin. Whether you were Gentile or Jew, Greek, educated, barbarian, it doesn’t matter. You all sin because you violate the will of God. But note what the concluding part of the verse says: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What is the glory of God? The glory of God is the essential nature of who God is. There is a reason why every person that’s ever come into the presence of God bows down before him. There is a reason why the angelic beings, even on this day who surround his throne are crying out, holy, holy, holy.

The glory of God is who he is. The glory of God is the fact that he is righteous and just and loving and faithful kindness goes from before him and truth. But what does sin do? Sin changed the essential nature of man. Sin made man no longer in the likeness of God. He now fell short of the glory of God. And when I sin, I fall short of the glory of God. When you sin, you fall short of the glory of God. You are acting less than the one whose image you were created in. Sin makes us impure. And the results of that are truly horrific. You may wish to turn your Bibles to Ephesians, the second chapter. We’ll come back to Ephesians a few times.

Ephesians is essentially a positive book. I love the book of Ephesians. Some of you will be studying that, I believe, the next quarter. Over and over again, Paul speaks to what God has done for us through his son. But Paul will also come back several times to remind his audience and therefore remind us as well. Here’s why you needed God doing this on your behalf. Because here’s where sin took you. Look at Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 1 and 1 through 3. Reading from the New American Standard, the text reads, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sins of disobedience.

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulged in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Here’s where sin took you. It was no small deal. Sin made you dead. Sin, because of you living in it, and you are following after all the course of the world, you are following after the ruler of this world. It changed your nature. You were no longer in the image of God. You’re now children of wrath.

That’s how horrible sin is. Go to the fourth chapter. In Ephesians, the fourth chapter. As Paul is again making this call for us to change our behavior, change our conduct. He says in verse 22 of Ephesians chapter 4, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit. Before Paul ever gets to, however, to put on the new self, and we’ll come to that in just a few minutes. He says, first of all, you’ve got to get rid of the old self. Why? Because it’s corrupt. It’s falling after lust and desires. I’m not old. And I will be saying that for the next 20 or 25 years. I am not old.

But I tell you, I think back to my 20-year-old self, and I wish I could get that body back. And I know there are people in this audience much older than I am. And while there is wisdom to be granted with age, and there’s experiences that you’ve gone through that have made you a better person. If you had the option, most likely, you would take the body you had 20 years ago and you would take it now because it’s newer. You don’t want something that’s old and corrupt. But Paul says that’s just what you were.

When we talk about sin making us impure, let’s just make sure we understand how totally impure we became. We were nothing like God anymore. We were old and corrupt.

3. In Christ We Are Purified

So you know where I’m going next. It is in Christ that we are purified. This was God’s will, because only God could, in fact, cleanse us. You’re familiar with what the prophet Isaiah says, as God says in Isaiah 1 and verse 18. Though your sins be as scarlet, even sometimes we sing, they shall be as white as snow. And while there was application of that to physical Israel of that time, true and final application of that would be through the one who would come in Isaiah 53 and bear the sins of the iniquities of the world. The one whom John proclaimed in John chapter 1 and verse 29, John the Baptist is with some of his disciples, and he sees Jesus pass by, he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

What Jesus would proclaim, even as he was instituting the memorial that we’ve already participated in this morning, this is my blood which is shed for the forgiveness of sins. Only in Christ can we be purified. And that is what has now happened to us. That in him we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. There’s a reason why we must not be embarrassed in telling people how they can have their sins forgiven through the blood of Christ. There’s a reason why we do not shy away from preaching to people obedience to the gospel message that yes, you need to believe in Jesus as your redeemer. You need to repent of your wrongs, and you need to be baptized.

Yes. Even as Jesus says, believe in him and be baptized so that you can be saved. Because God wants you purified. And by faith you can know that in heeding his will, he does purify you. And that only through the blood of Christ can you be purified. And let us also stress this. There’s a reason why we must preach and we must teach things that are viewed as negative. Last week, the 20s and 30s class got together and we had a very good discussion about perceptions and how even sometimes outsiders can perceive the church. One of the words that was given was people may perceive us as prudish. Not a word we typically use, but I thought it was a pretty good word. Y’all don’t do a lot of things that the world does.

Why?

Why? Why is it that we will hasten to point out to help people to see there are behaviors that are wrong? Moral behaviors, spiritual behaviors, relationship behaviors, all kinds of things that God says we must not do. Why must we do that? Because we are purified by the very blood of Christ. He made us pure. And we must not go back and to live in those things any further. Throughout the scriptures, you have this call to not go back into those former behaviors. If you’re still here in Ephesians chapter 4, notice what it said in verses 17 through 19. So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.

And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. And then verse 20, but you did not learn Christ in this way. What you learned about Christ is that He can forgive you. He can cleanse away all those sins, and He removed those from you. So do not go back and live in those things anymore. It’s an unfortunate thing that sometimes perceptions are shaped the way they are. But we cannot change the will of God. We cannot change into what God has said is sinful. No, rather, don’t go back into those things. Romans chapter 6, another passage that may already be in some of your minds. Romans chapter 6, shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound?

May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Again, here is why we must continue to follow the will of God. And we must even point out wrong and sinful behavior. Because we died with Christ. And we were raised to walk in newness of life. Christ forgave us. He cleansed us. He made us pure again. But that’s not where the lesson ends. Yes, in Christ we are purified.

4. In Christ, We Are Also Holy

We have been cleansed. But in Christ, we are also holy.

Says it is 100% natural spring water. This is, I am assuming, pure wood. Feels pretty solid. I’ve slammed my hand on it a couple of times before and it felt solid enough. So it’s either pure wood or it’s got some granite underneath, but I’m going to assume, yep, pure wood.

Now I know we’ve got the deals about carrots and all that, so you know. Just bear with me. Pure gold. Which do you think is the most valuable to me?

I can get more water. And if something happened to this, there may even be someone here who’s talented enough. You could go out into the woods and chop down some trees and maybe construct us another one. It’s only a wedding ring of God. And it’s about the only gold that I have.

There’s a lot of things that are pure. If you want to look at it from the standpoint that it’s a homogeneous substance, there’s nothing else in it. It’s a pure substance. But what God wants of us is not simply a homogeneous substance. He wants something that’s truly valuable. And that’s what Christ has done for us. You see, purity and the discussion of purity falls short if we simply talk about how our sins were removed and how we ought not to continue in sin. Purity is also about here is what we, excuse me, here’s what we now are. Here’s what God can make of us. And so you go back to Ephesians chapter 4. And after we were exhorted to put off the old man, he now says, put on the new self, and it’s in the what?

The likeness of God, which has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Man created in the image of God, in his likeness, because of sin fell short of the glory of God. Now through Christ, many sons have been brought to glory in Ephesians 2, Hebrews 2 and in verse 10. And now we are in the likeness of God all over again. He didn’t just forgive me in my sins. He makes of me something better, something holy, something purely valuable. And so again, the call of purity is much more than simply not sinning. It is the call that we have in 1 Peter 1 verses 15 through 16 to be holy, as I am holy, God says. It is a call to bear the fruit of the Spirit of Galatians chapter 5 and verses 22 through 24.

That the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such there is no law. You recognize in that passage, it is not a negative passage. It is not a passage that simply says, stay away from all these things. It is a passage that affirms here are the positive characteristics of God. And if you’re being led by the Spirit, if you’re going to bear the fruit of the Spirit as you consume God’s word and put it into practice, here’s what it looks like. You’re a better person because you’re becoming like He is in His likeness. And friends, that’s what truly shines. That’s what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5, verses 13 through 16. First of all, you have the aspect of, you know, we’re the salt of the earth.

If salt loses its saltiness, what value, what good is it anymore? There’s your idea about keeping yourself pure. Don’t let the bad things, the impurities come in. You understand when salt gets impurities in it, it’s not salt anymore. But verse 16, let your light so shine that when men see your absence of bad works, it’s not what Matthew 5 16 says. When men see your good deeds, when they see the joy and the love and the patience that you exhibit in your life, when they see these positive aspects of who God is magnified in your life, they can then give glory to God. If I might just reemphasize the point with a visual. Here we all are, we’re all scarlet. I think that, yeah, it looks scarlet from here.

I don’t know how it looks back there. Here we all were in sin, scarlet. And what many of us have tried to do in our past is well, I’ll try to get rid of the sin in my life. And now we’re just shades of scarlet. We got rid of some of the bad things, but we just couldn’t get rid of all of it. But we’re better people than we used to be, and we’re certainly better than the next fellow. But then it’s Christ who can, even as Isaiah 1 in verse 18 says, though your sins be as scarlet, you shall be as white as snow. And that provides a contrast, does it not? Sure it does. But the point for us is this.

Conclusion

If I’m only worried about getting rid of the sin in my life. Transformation is not complete then. If I could make this just radiate out of the screen, I would. I can’t do that. But the idea is you show them God. You being not only representative of God, you be representational of God. You show the people God in your life. You be the representative and the representation of God around the people who you live with and you work with. And then you’ll shine. We’re created anew in his likeness and his image. That’s the exhortation for us. That’s how purity can help our lights to shine. The invitation we extend this morning is that Christ can do for you more than perhaps you ever imagined. That because of sin, you are impure, just as we all have been impure, defiled, dead.

Through Christ, those sins can be all forgiven. And oftentimes when I extend an invitation, it’s with that very thought that your sins can be forgiven. And that is certainly true. But we wish to extend the invitation a little bit further this morning. Not only can your sins be forgiven through the blood of Christ, but you can regain the very nature of who you were, created in his likeness. You can be holy as God is holy, righteous, just, loving, pure, all those things as God is, you can be to.

Morning, because if you have sinned, if you would believe in Jesus and believe that God can do for you what He has promised through His Son, and you would turn from all those bad behaviors, repent of your sins, and you would be baptized so that the blood of Christ may forgive you and cleanse you and create in you a new, raised to walk in newness of life. And we would love to help you. And it may be that some of us who have begun the journey recognize that I’ve not been letting my light shine. I’ve been trying to cape away from sin, perhaps, but I’ve not been demonstrating and displaying the positive aspects of who God is. And determine today that you’ll be a representative of God here on this earth.

That you’ll be representational of God to the people who know you.

So if we can aid you in some way this morning, won’t you come as we stand and as we sing?