"Oh yes, we’re the great pretenders. Pretending that we’re doing well. My need is such I pretend too much. I'm lonely but no one can tell." (excerpt from a song)
Sometimes, we appear as if everything is well or we appear “holy” in the church, or we even wear mask and deceive ourselves. But you know what, we can’t wear this mask before the Lord because He sees right through it. God knows the real intentions of our hearts. He can see through our deepest thoughts and nothing is hidden from Him.
This is the reason why Jesus said “blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God!” God knows whether our heart is pure or not. In fact, even before we can think about something, God already knows. So there is really no point wearing a mask before God.
Read Matthew 5:1-10
This is where we got the English word “catharsis” which means a cleansing of the mind.
The first meaning is often used to describe metals that had been
refined by fire until they were free from impurities.
The second meaning refers to a kind of purity that is synonymous with integrity and loyalty.
Jesus said it Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Jesus wants us to be single-minded and not double-minded when it comes to loving and serving Him. The Bible tells us that a double-minded person is unstable in all his ways. We also learned from our previous discussions that all of our actions, reactions, behaviours, habits, and especially the words that come out of our mouths emanates what is stored in our hearts. The Bible tells us that “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."
According to Pastor Coy Wylie of the Cornerstone Baptist Church, the Bible gives us five types of PURITY:
2. CREATED Purity. When God first created the world, everything he created was pure. Genesis 1:31 tells us that “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”
3. POSITIONAL Purity. The moment we are saved, the purity of Jesus is imputed unto us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
4. PRACTICAL Purity. As far as we’re concerned, this is the most challenging part. Our positional purity is confirmed by our practical purity. 2nd Corinthians 7:1 says “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”
5. ULTIMATE Purity. There will come a time when Christians will be totally cleansed and purified. 1 John 3:2 promises us “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
Every day of our lives, God creates situations and circumstances in order to develop our character. It’s a process called SANCTIFICATION.
The Bible compares God to a refiner of metals. He brings us to a fiery furnace – we’re like a rough piece of metal, hard and formless --- slowly God shapes us into someone who closely resembles His Son Jesus Christ. The process is not easy for most of us. Not because God has limited powers but because we are stubborn and hard headed and God is like a patient and meticulous craftsman, who slowly shapes us, refines us, chips us from side to side, brings us to the fire from time to time.
I’m sure you have realised that after encountering a challenging situation, overall you improved as a person because of what you learned from it. That’s God’s process of purifying our hearts. That’s God’s process of refining us.
God develops our character. He slowly removes our mask. We become more true to ourselves, we become more consistent, we learn to be more transparent, we practice what we preach and we walk the talk. As a result, we are able to maintain an authentic and lasting relationship with others.
The Bible tells us in 1st John 1:7 -- But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.
The world we live in thinks that real intimacy occurs in the dark but God says otherwise, it actually in the light because God is light. We tend to use darkness to masquerade our true selves, to hide our hurts, faults, fears, failures, and flaws. But in the light, we bring them all out into the open and admit who we really are.
The religious people during Jesus times were experts at outward purity. They had all sorts of rules on what to eat, what to wear, how far you could walk on the Sabbath, and so forth. They spent all their time trying to make the outside look good, but they were really wearing masks as to what was truly on the inside.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The Bible promises us that those who are pure in heart can see God. Psalm 24:3-4a
“Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart”
Jesus did not leave heaven and came into this world just because there are some habits that He wants to change in us. He came into this world to purify our corrupted hearts and save our souls.
When God looks closely at your lives, what does He see? When He looks behind your mask, what does He discover? Is your heart divided? “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Let us allow Jesus to purify our hearts and renew our steadfast spirit because if we are pure in heart, He will bless us and we shall understand who God truly is.
God bless you.
Prayer
Wherever you are, whatever you situation you may be -- you need the love of Jesus in your life. Please say this prayer sincerely from your heart:
Father God, I confess all my sins to you today. Please forgive me. Today, I open my heart to your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Him in my life as my Saviour and as my Lord. May the Holy Spirit come to my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be. In Jesus Name, I pray. Amen.
The above article is an excerpt from a sermon delivered at WCCC Richmond during its service on Sunday, July 3, 2016
I apologise if there are grammatical and spelling errors.
I also apologise if I have missed acknowledging or making proper references to my sources, if any. as it is purely unintentional.
If you are looking for a church in British Columbia, Canada please visit our website at:
www.wordchristiancommunity.com
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