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Let Us Cleanse Ourselves
March 25, 2012
Although we live in fleshly bodies and are subject to sin through ignorance, mistake, or weakness, we have a responsibility before God to make an effort to remove sin from our lives. No believer in Jesus Christ should set about to sin purposely. If we are His, we have an obligation to walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh. That is, we serve God in our spirits, and we do not live to please the flesh and its desires.
Bernie Parsons
Let Us Cleanse Ourselves
by
Bernie Parsons
Presented to Load church of Christ on 03-25-2012
Presented to Globe church of Christ on 04-01-2012
In
my last lesson, I talked about how that the righteous men of old shared like
passions that we have. We can be righteous and still be passionate, but our
passion needs to be pure.
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."
While we are subject to the passions of the flesh, it is our duty to cleanse
ourselves of those things that draw us away from God.
As
Jesus told a man that He had healed, “Sin no more!”
John 5:12 "Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take
up thy bed, and walk?
13
And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself
away, a multitude being in that place.
14
Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou
art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee."
We
recently studied how that He told the woman caught in adultery to sin no
more.
John 8:10 "When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he
said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned
thee?
11
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee:
go, and sin no more."
While we are subject to the passions of the flesh, it is our duty to cleanse
ourselves of those things that draw us away from God.
Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a
cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before
us,
2
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Sin
weighs us down, if we let it. Instead, we must lay it aside, so that, freed
from that burden, we can run the race before us.
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."
We
cannot embrace a double-minded state, and expect to be accepted by God. We
either seek God, or we don’t. We must desire to draw near to God, while
running away from sin.
1
Corinthians 6:18 "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without
the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body."
1
Corinthians 10:14 "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry."
1
Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while
some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows.
11
But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
12
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art
also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."
2
Timothy 2:22 "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith,
charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."
Romans 12:9 “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is
evil; cleave to that which is good.”
Paul corroborates what James stated so clearly – you cannot have it both
ways. If you flee sin, you automatically move in the direction of
righteousness.
Matthew 6:22 "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be
single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If
therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon."
Jesus tells us that we are totally one way or the other. We either have
light in us, or darkness.
Romans 6:11 "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in
the lusts thereof.
13
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin:
but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but
under grace.
15
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?
God forbid.
16
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness?
17
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."
The
apostle Paul leaves no doubt as to how we must live our lives, and that is a
life of obedience to righteousness. It behooves us to be diligent about it,
because the apostle Peter warned that the righteous shall scarcely be saved.
1
Peter 4:17 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of
God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey
not the gospel of God?
18
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the
sinner appear?"
Let’s look at more of what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 6.
Romans 6:1 "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound?
2
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into his death?
4
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life.
5
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall
be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no
more dominion over him.
10
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God."
The
truth is that the blood of Jesus cleanses us of our sins. The truth is that
the righteous men of old were of like passions as are we. The truth is that
we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
But, it is also the truth that God expects us to flee from sin, to cleanse
our hearts, and to draw near to Him. Once we are risen with Christ, we have
left behind the old sinner that we were, and we are reborn, and walk as new
creatures, in a new lifestyle. Raised from that sinful life, let us all live
forevermore unto God!
