And how you're living, I suppose, and and and how you
take it. But first, John, chapter three,
I've got some exciting news for you this morning.
Jesus is coming back to get us. That's exciting news.
I don't know what you expected me to say, but that there's no
more exciting news than that he's coming.
And I don't know when it's going to happen.
You don't know what happened, but it's going to happen someday
and probably soon. And that's an exciting, exciting
thought. But that's what this passage
here in First John chapter 3 is speaking about the appearance of
Jesus Christ in the clouds. He's coming.
He's coming, and it's going to trigger the rapture of the
Saints. And you know, honestly, society
will be just going on as usual. And the Bible says in in Hebrews
Chapter 11, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last
trump for the dead. And the trumpet shall sound and
the dead and Christ shall be raised incorruptible, and we
shall be changed. It's going to happen so quickly
that nobody's, you know, nobody's going to be prepared
for it, as far as you know, expecting it to happen when it
does. First Thessalonia chapter 4 and
verse 17 says, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air. And so shall we ever be with the
Lord. And Can you imagine what, what,
what life is going to be like on earth when all of the saved are
gone or just they're they're just they're there one moment
and the next moment they're, they're they're gone, right.
Could you imagine if Jesus Christ came back during the
church service and everybody's gone but you?
You'll know what happened and you're going to say, oh man, I
missed it. And I mean, it's funny, but it's
not going to be funny for the person sitting there.
You better make sure that you know for sure that you're on
your way to heaven. You better make sure that you
know you're going to go up in the Rapture.
But, but could you imagine an airline pilot knows Jesus Christ
is his savior? Gone.
You know, they say that at any given point there are 60,000
people above the United States in the air.
At any given point during a day, 60,000 people.
Could you imagine if five of those airline pilots were saved,
what kind of chaos that's going to cause?
Imagine when I was bad enough, when everybody is in the
driver's seat, let alone imagine what it's like when half the
cars are without a driver and you're going 75 miles an hour
down the road. Could you imagine the
destruction? Right.
But then and they'll find a way to spin it.
They do that with everything when it comes to the news,
right? Oh, it was a zombie apocalypse.
Or, you know, I don't even know what the zombie stuff is.
Maybe that's not anything. But, you know, they'll have a
way to explain it away. They'll have a well, you know,
there's an alien invasion. We've been telling you about
aliens all this time. And now there was an alien
invasion and half the people are gone.
Come up with a way to spin it, but we'll know what happens.
Jesus Christ is going to come back while the world looks for
us. We're going to be with the Lord.
And the Bible says in first John chapter 3 and verse #1.
Think about these words. Wonderful, wonderful verses.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us
that we should be called the sons of God.
Therefore the world knows us not because it knew Him not.
Think about that. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that he would call us his Son.
That's an amazing, amazing thing, verse #2.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, And it does not yet appear
what we shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
And every man that hath this hope in him purifyeth himself
even as he is pure. How you think about that in in
in verse #2. One of these days we're going to
see Jesus face to face, and everything that you've imagined
about Jesus, I can guarantee you it falls far short of exactly
who he is. Now.
Could you imagine? You know I've never wished to be
blind, but could you imagine being blind?
And the first thing you ever see is Jesus?
The first thing you ever get to look at is his face, the one
that died for you. Behold, what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. But the Bible says there in
verse #3, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth
himself, even as he is pure. We've been talking in the
Institute with the men about studying out different words and
making sure you understand what the passage means.
That word, hope, in that passage is an interesting word.
It doesn't carry the usual meaning that we think of.
When you talk about hope, the feeling of you know that what is
wanted can be had or, you know, the hope that an event is going
to turn out well. It's not like hoping for a new
car for your birthday or hoping that Brother Bill is going to
finally come through and buy me that truck I've been asking him
for. It's not like, you know, hoping
for a raise at work or hope that you know that the mess at the
office will turn out right. That's when we think of the word
hope. That's a lot of what we think
of, you know, often I hope that everything's going to turn out
OK That's not the hope that the Bible was talking about there in
verse #3. That's not what this usage is.
The born again, people are not going around hoping that one day
they're going to be taken to heaven.
We know for a fact that if we've accepted Jesus Christ as our
Savior, then by faith we can trust that he's going to do what
he said he's going to do and we'll be gone.
When the rapture happens, it means to anticipate, usually
with pleasure, expectation or confidence, Faith, Hope.
Every man that hath this hope, every man that hath this
anticipation, every man that has this expectation or that
confidence purifies himself even as he is pure.
The anticipation, the expectation, the confidence, the
faith, that's what that word, hope, is talking about.
He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself.
You know why so many Christians are going on in life filled with
things of the world? Because they're not looking for
Jesus to come. If we were really expecting
Jesus Christ to come right now, what would be changed in your
life? What would be different in what
you're doing right now if you knew that Jesus Christ was going
to come back tomorrow? There's no expectation, there's
no anticipation, There's no real confidence in their hope.
I heard about a little girl who was listening to a preacher on
the radio with her mother. And this preacher was talking
about the second coming of Jesus Christ and and Jesus may come up
today, may come today. And so she went upstairs.
It was kind of in the afternoon, Evening she went upstairs.
She took a bath and she put on her her clean white dress.
And then she stood right next to the window.
Her mom hadn't seen her for a few minutes, so she went
upstairs and she saw this little girl standing there looking out
the window and she said, what are you doing?
She said, well, the preacher said Jesus is coming back and
I'm up here looking for him to come.
And boy, if if we just had that same mindset, if we had that
same attitude, Jesus Christ said he's coming back, Are we looking
for his coming? Are we anticipating with
expectation that he could come back today?
When we were growing up, we we heated our house with wood.
And so Brian can tell you we were always out cutting,
splitting, chopping, you know, stacking wood.
I mean that seemed like that's all we did.
The whole summer was cutting split wood.
And then all winter we cut and split wood and carried it in the
house. I mean, it's like we never had
enough wood, but that's how we heated the house.
And so naturally, when you're supposed to be working and
you're a kid, you're going to find ways to try to make it fun.
And once you know that we had four apple trees in our backyard
that were there when we moved in and they would never been pruned
or anything. So the apples didn't.
I mean, you could eat them. They were kind of sour.
They had wormholes in them and we were starving, so we did.
But when you're a teenage kid and you're looking for something
to eat, you don't eat anything if even if it's an apple with a
wormhole, you just eat around the wormhole.
But The thing is, those apples were perfect as weapons, and so
we'd be carrying wood or splitting wood and somebody
would throw an apple. And I don't know, you probably
never got hit in the back with an apple.
But it stings, it stings. And I'm telling you one thing,
when you get hit in the back with an apple, you're not going
to just let it happen, You're going to pick it up and throw it
back, right? And next thing you know, there's
apples flying everywhere. There was ten of us.
There was a lot of apples flying through the air.
We were supposed to be working. And here we are playing and
throwing apples and everything else.
And guess my dad always came around the corner.
Not when we were working, not when we were splitting the wood
and chopping it and stacking it up and everything else.
He always came mid throw, right? It's like where you come eye to
eye and you're like, stink. How do I get out of this back?
My head's itching, right? That's But that's when he came.
That's it's like it never failed, right?
Same thing when your mom told you to clean your room.
And you better have that clean by the time I get back.
And you got plenty of time until she shows up in the driveway and
you guys are in the middle of making a giant mess, right?
And now what? Now we're trying to rush around
and clean it. And the same way as a lot of
Christians treat the coming of Jesus Christ, he's coming back.
And if if we believe that, then we'll be busy working for him,
We'll be busy living for him, We'll be doing what's right when
he comes back. We certainly didn't want to see
our dad then. There was no anticipation.
There was no eagerness. There was no I can't wait to see
my dad now. Right.
And and we do the same thing with Jesus Christ.
But there's only one thing that we need to do in regard to the
expectation of Jesus Christ coming.
And we find that very plainly there in verse #3.
Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself.
Or how? How far do you go?
How do you know when you're pure?
How do you know when, when you've gone far enough and
you're you're living though exactly the way you should?
Well, he tells us, even as he is pure.
So I think we got a long way to go.
If we really believe that Jesus Christ is coming back, then we
would purify some things. And this morning I want to
preach to you on this thought, when he shall appear, when he
shall appear. And I want to give you 5 things
that we would purify in our lives if we really lived as if
Jesus Christ could come back today.
Let's pray and then we'll look at those things.
Good morning, Father. We love you.
Give me thank you for your goodness to us and thank you for
an opportunity that we have to be here.
I pray that you'd use this message in our hearts.
I pray that you'd give me the words to say fill me with your
power. I pray in Jesus name.
Amen. First thing that we would purify
is our hearts, and that makes sense.
You think naturally that if we're going to purify anything,
our heart has to be pure. Jeremiah 17 and verse #9 was
exactly the opposite of what a lot of people in the world has
to say today. Follow your heart.
Just just do what your heart tells you is the right thing to
do. That's that's horrible advice.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 17 and verse #9, the heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? So why would you follow your
heart if it's desperately wicked?
Don't follow your heart. Follow the Lord, that's what.
That's what our job is. And so it takes a lot of time
for us to purify our hearts. It takes a lot of effort for us
to purify our hearts. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23
says keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the
issues of life. Your heart is the speed of your
emotions. That's that's who you are,
right? I mean, I can't.
You're not going to open up your chest and pull your heart out
and clean it off a little bit and stick it back in there.
When he's talking about cleansing your heart, he's
saying get your get your life right with him.
Out of the heart, keep your heart with all diligence for out
of it are the issues of life. So how would we purify our
hearts? Will number one, we should be
cleansed through salvation. Are you ready for him to come?
Have you been saved? Have you accepted Jesus Christ
as your Savior? Are you one of those people that
when you go to sleep at night, there's a lump in your throat
the size of a football because you're hoping you wake up in the
morning because you don't know where you're going to be.
If you don't, there's no way to live.
What the tells us that we can have that hope?
We can have that expectation? When I lay my head down at
night, I don't think about, well, I hope I wake up in the
morning, bring it on. You can't threaten me with
heaven, but what a wonderful thing that's going to be.
Jesus Christ came back in the middle of the night while I was
sleeping to be the greatest thing that ever happened.
Not worried about dying. I'm not worried about, you know,
spending eternity in hell because I know where I'm going
when I die and know who my Savior is, and I know that he'll
do everything that he's promised to do.
But those who don't know Jesus Christ is their savior live with
that uncertainty. And they're certainly not
anticipating Jesus Christ coming back.
They're not looking forward to that coming because they don't
know what's going to happen when he does.
It might be the one person still sitting in the auditorium when
he comes back. I want a feeling, that's what a
feeling that's going to be because most of those people who
are sitting in church that are going to be there, the couple
that are left, they're going to look at each other and they're
going to say the Rapture just happened and we missed it.
And if you miss it, it's too late.
You can't. You can't catch the second bus
in the Rapture. There is no second bus.
You can't. You catch the Rapture on the
first time across, or you don't get in on the Rapture and you
don't spend eternity in heaven. What a horrible, horrible thing
that is. But you don't have to live with
that uncertainty. You can accept Jesus Christ as
your Savior. You can come to him for
salvation today and know for sure that if Jesus Christ came
back this afternoon, you'd be going with us.
And what a wonderful feeling that is.
We don't live by feelings, but it sure feels good.
I can tell you that much. Have you been to Jesus for that
cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of
the land? Are you fully trusting in His
grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? That's how you get cleansed.
You get washed in the blood of the Lamb.
That cleansing is for salvation, but also we find the cleansing
through sanctification. Sanctification is that growing
process. After you're saved, getting
saved is the first step. That's the foundation.
But if all you have is a foundation, you can't live on a
foundation. You have to have a house.
You have to build on that foundation.
And that's what that sanctification process is.
It's the time of, as the Bible says, going on to perfection
that spoken of in Hebrews, growth in Christ is going to
produce a clean vessel. As you grow in Christ, you're
going to realize these are some things that I'm doing in my life
that I shouldn't be doing. I need to clean those out.
These are some things that I need to have in my life that I
should be doing. I need to put those in, right?
I mean, you think about a house, right?
If you decided, you know what, I need that my house needs to be
cleaned. I'm going to stop dropping
crumbs on the floor. And you can try to stop dropping
crumbs, but you're still going to drop some here and there.
You need to add a vacuum cleaner or or at least a broom so you
can use it to help clean up the mess, right?
So you need to get rid of some things, you need to add some
things in there. And that's what that
sanctification process is all about.
But that sanctification comes through cleansing and I'll and
then turn over to Ephesians chapter 5.
If you will keep your finger there in First John or put a
bookmark or something, we're coming back to it.
But if we believed, if we truly believe that Jesus Christ is
coming back today, when He shall appear, we would purify our
through salvation and #3 through the scriptures, we'd be cleansed
through the scriptures. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
#26 says that he might sanctify talking about the church and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word John chapter
15 and verse 13. Now you are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you.
When you get your heart exposed to the word of God, then there's
going to be a cleansing that takes place.
You can't read the word of God long.
You can't sit in a message and listen to the Word of God being
preached long without it affecting you, without it
changing you. Not that you plan it.
It's not that you have to activate it.
That cleansing comes from reading and hearing the word of
God. If your heart is not clean, then
I would say that you've not been washing it enough.
With the word of God you get in the Bible, you'll have a hard
time finding time. You'll have a hard time finding
place. Sin you know, and sin doesn't
come so easy anymore When you start reading the Word of God
and you start really digging into it and studying it.
Did your mom make you scrub behind your ears when you were
growing up? I tell you that mothers must
think that that's the only place you ever get dirt.
Because my mom would tell me that all the time the back of
your ears are so dear. I would scrub them things so
they were raw. And then she's like your ears
are dirty again. I'm like, I scrubbed it.
I don't know what you want me to do.
There's no ear left. You're probably seeing my brain.
And that's why it looks dirty, right?
But but that's exactly what the Bible does to us.
It scrubs us. It cleans us.
It gets into the places that it needs to get into in order for
us to be clean before God. Turn over to 1st John One
because the word of God will cleanse your heart.
We need that purification if we're going to be pure.
If we're going to purify ourselves as the Bible says,
then that's where we have to start.
We have to purify our hearts first.
John chapter one and verse #7 says but if we walk in the light
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and
the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin.
Verse #9 If we confess our sin, by the way this is written to
Christians, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just.
To forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness, we need that cleansing.
You're walking through a dirty, dirty world.
You're walking through the muck and the mire and the mess and
everything else that's going on around us.
You need that cleansing. You need to have the word of God
that cleanses us. Psalm 51.
David in his in his penitent Psalm, if you will, said in
verse #2. Wash me throughly from my
iniquity, he said, Cleanse me from my sin.
If you are convinced thoroughly that Jesus Christ was going to
come back today, you'd be at this altar this morning,
cleansing your heart. I can promise you that.
We need to be doing that every single day.
We need to be asking him for that cleansing.
We need to be asking him and that and and how do you know
what needs to be cleansed out? How do you know what needs to be
changed? The word of God does that.
If we were really looking for the we would purify our hearts,
but also #2, we would purify our heads.
Turn over to Philippians, Philippians chapter one.
And I'm thinking of the mind at this point.
I use the word head so I could stay with H this morning because
all the rest of the points fit right in with that.
But Philippians, really. Paul deals with this matter of
the head or the mind a lot in the book of Philippians.
And over there in Philippians chapter one, we see first of all
that we have to keep our minds on the gospel, keep our minds in
the gospel. Paul spent so much time talking
about that. In fact, in verse #7 of chapter
one, he says, even as it is made for me to think this of you all,
because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds
and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you
all are protectors of my grace. Verse 12 have fallen out.
These things that have happened and we have fallen out, he says
rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, verse 17.
But that I am set for the defense of the gospel.
Verse 27, he says. Only let your conversation be as
it becometh the gospel of Christ.
I know that if we had made the gospel of Jesus Christ the one
main focal point of our entire thinking and all of our efforts,
it would purify our thinking process.
If everything you did was with the idea of getting the gospel
out, it would change the way that you think.
If everybody that you encountered you thought that
person needs the gospel, it would change the way you think
about other people. If, if, if, if, if, if all you
can think about is getting the message of the gospel out.
It would purify your thinking. But then he goes on in chapter
two. He said we need to keep our
minds on our glory and Savior Jesus Christ, right?
Philippians chapter 2 talks all about that in verse #5.
Really kind of boils it all down there.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Do you have the mind of Christ? If you had the mind of Christ,
your mind would be purified. You would be thinking about the
right things. Have you ever wondered what
Jesus thought about or what he thinks about?
I've thought that so many times. Jesus was God, so he was.
He was sinless, He was perfect. He he could sin because he was
all man, but he couldn't sin because he was all God.
And what did he think about, you know, What would he think about
the way it used to be in heaven? Did he?
Did he what? What did he think about when he
was on this earth? I don't know.
But. But the mind of Christ is the
mind that we're supposed to have, right?
So have you ever considered what really went through his mind as
he was being tried for the crimes that he didn't commit and
he knew he didn't commit those things?
I wonder what he thought about when his when his own people
cried out. Crucify him.
What was going through his mind?
But the mind of Christ is what we're supposed to have if we're
going to. We'll force our minds to dwell
on the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done through the cross
for us. It'll purify our hearts, our
heads. Collections Chapter 3 and verse
two says set your affection on things above, not on things on
the earth. If our affections are there, we
don't have time for this. Down here.
You can't split your affections. That's what the Bible makes that
very clear in Matthew. You're either going to love the
one and hate the other. You'll despise the one and hold
the other. You cannot serve God and ma'am,
and you can't love both with all your heart the way that he tells
it to. You either love the world with
all your heart or you love God with all of your heart.
There is no middle ground, Roman chapter 13 and verse 14 says,
But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision
for the flesh to fulfill it in the lust thereof.
You get your mind focused on the gospel.
You get your mind focused on Jesus Christ.
You can have a hard time finding other things to focus on that
shouldn't that, that are not right.
And then we go on to Philippians Chapter 3, and he says that we
ought to keep our minds on the goal.
What's our goal? Get rich?
No. Is it to to retire at an early
age? Gain popularity?
All of those things are are empty.
They're vain, they're worthless, they're useless.
When it comes to the cause of Jesus Christ, we're talking
about purifying our minds. Our goal should be to to what
Paul spells out and Philippians Chapter 3 and verse #14, I
pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus. That's what our minds ought to
be on. Paul says.
Nothing is going to detain me. Nothing's going to hold me back.
Nothing's going to make me turn or alter my course.
I'm pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. See all these things, these
these are motivators for us, right?
Why would get Why would Jesus tell us about heaven and how
beautiful it is if he didn't want us to go there?
If he didn't want us to think about going there?
Why would he offer us crowns if he didn't want us to try to earn
those crowns? Right?
They're there as motivators and he's Paul has got his eye on the
prize. I pressed toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, right?
And then chapter 4. I don't want to belabor the
point, but he says we need to keep our minds guarded.
Philippians chapter 4 and verse #8.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true.
Whatsoever things are honest. Whatsoever things are just.
Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are lovely.
Whatsoever things are of a good report.
If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on
these things, those things which you have both learned and
received, and heard and seen in me do, And the God of peace
shall be with you. But I rejoice in the Lord
greatly, that now at the last your care of me have flourished
again, wherein you're all so careful, but you lack the
opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of
want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with
to be content. How can Paul be so in control of
himself? He has his, he has his thinking,
right? That's why verse 11 was no
problem for him. I'm not speaking in respect of
I've learned whatsoever study him to be with, to be content.
Why? Because he had his thinking
right. He was dwelling on those things
that he tells us we ought to be dwelling on.
Make your mind think on the things inverse Satan.
Before long you're going to have a purified head #3.
If we're really looking for the appearing of Jesus Christ and if
you will turn over to James, Chapter 4, We'd purify our
hearts, We'd purify our heads. And #3, if we're really looking
forward to the coming of Jesus Christ, we'd purify our hands.
James Chapter 4 and verse 8 makes that very clear.
He says draw night to God and he will draw night to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, Ye
doubleminded. Well, there's purify in both of
those. Purify your hearts.
But he's also saying, purify your hands, clean your hands.
We'd put away the hands that hold the beer cans.
If we had pure hands, we put away the hands that hold the
telephone while we gossip. If we had pure hands, the hands
that participate in evil deeds, we'd put those away.
If our hands were pure, purified hands would pass out tracks.
Purified hands would would take the message of the gospel and
give it to other people. It would knock on doors of
sinners. It would make our hands of
service to God. #4 I want you to see this.
If we were really looking for the appearing of Jesus Christ,
we purify our homes. Don't raise your hands this
morning, but how many of you be thrilled to go home this morning
and find Jesus Christ sitting in your living room looking through
all the things that you have in your house?
How would you feel if he turned on your TV and the last show
that you were watching popped up for him to see it?
How would you like for him to go through your DVD collection or
your Netflix account and see the things that you've been
watching? Would that be something you'd be
fine with or would you have to hang your head and say don't
look at that? Let me clear the history off of
that for just a minute. How about if you sat down at
your computer or picked up your cell phone and started going
through it? Are you okay with that?
Because if we really believe that Jesus Christ was coming
back today, we'd purify our homes.
There wouldn't be things in there that we didn't want him to
see. The magazines or the books or
whatever you're choosing to read and listen to and watch and all
of those other things that you think are hidden.
Hey, brother Josh is a is a computer guy.
He could find stuff in the in the dark corners of your of your
computer. Imagine what Jesus Christ can
do, because he's already seen it.
He already knows it's there. He knows exactly where it's at.
He knows exactly what you're doing.
If you really believe that Jesus Christ was coming back today or
could, your home would be pure, you wouldn't.
You wouldn't allow your kids to be doing those things.
You wouldn't be doing those things that you wouldn't allow
your kids to do. See.
Would you welcome the idea of him turning on a hidden tape
recorder and listening to your conversations the last week?
Listening to the things that you talk about, Listen to the things
that you argue about, But you have to change any of your plans
for entertainment. If you knew that Jesus Christ
was coming to your house. See, the American home is in
shambles. The horrible news broadcast is
just, you know, just a report of the failure in the homes of
America. The reason why this country is
in the condition that it's in is because the homes have fallen
apart. And the reason the churches are
in the conditions they're in is because the the church is not
doing its job to strengthen the home.
Strong homes and strong families make up strong churches, and
strong churches make up the backbone of a nation.
So when the home falls apart, the churches fall apart, and
when the churches fall apart, the backbone of the nation falls
apart. If we would purify our homes,
what a difference it would make in our society.
Purified home but not be a home where child abuse occurred.
Purified home would not be a home where the dad was abusive
to the to the mother. Purified Home would be a home
where Christ is the head, where the Bible is the authority.
Purified home is a home where the Bible is red and the Bible
is memorized. Purified home is a home where
every member of that home has a high regard and a respect for
the other members of that family.
Right. Most most people treat the
neighbor's dog better than they than they treat their their
family, their own family members.
I remember the Larry Brown. Some of you wouldn't would know
who he is. He's been an event.
He was a pastor for a long time. He's evangelist now.
But he preached a message called treat her like a dog.
And you think the title is from a treat.
Treat. He's talking about your wife.
Treat her like a dog. He said most people treat their
dogs better than they treat their wife.
You know how many times you go, oh, you're such a good boy, Come
here. And then you're hollering at
your wife, right? Treat her like a dog.
If you treat your wife the way you treat your dog, your wife
would probably get treated a whole lot better than most wives
are treated. But how does that happen?
That happens when we purify our homes, when we let Jesus Christ
be the center of our home. And here's the last one.
Turn over to Romans, chapter 12. I put this point last on purpose
because I don't think it's anywhere as close to as
important as the first four points, but it's certainly worth
mentioning nonetheless, because we find it in the Bible.
If we're really looking for the appearing of Jesus Christ, we
purify our hearts. We purify our heads, we purify
our hands, we purify our homes, and lastly we'd purify our
health. Roman chapter 12 and verse #1
says this. I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service, and be not conform to this world to be
transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
To purify our health means we ought to be eating right, taking
care of our bodies. I'm not a health nut by any
stretch, and I would never say that you need to cut out all the
sugars or all carbs or whatever they say that you need to do to
to be the healthiest you can possibly be.
I like food as much as the next person, and I can put away of my
shared desserts and all that stuff, but I do believe that we
should take care of the body that God's given us.
Somebody said this. If I had known I would live this
long, I would have taken better care of myself.
I'll be honest with you, I think it's less of a health nut issue
and more of a Bible issue when we don't take care of our
bodies. Turn over to Philippians chapter
3. I'm not going to belabor this
point, but I think it's worth mentioning because in
Philippians chapter 3 and verse #17, the Bible says this
brethren be followers together with me and mark them which
walk. So as ye have us for an example
for many walk, of whom I've told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,
whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose
glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
For our conversation is in heaven.
From once we also look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashion like unto
his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able
even to subdue all things unto himself.
There is no good in this body of flesh and the and the Bible
makes it very clear it's wicked, it's evil.
But I would like for the Lord to know that I have control over it
and that I'm able to purify my health.
Right? The better your health, the
longer you live, the more time you have, and the more you're
able to accomplish for the cause of Jesus Christ.
I've seen a lot of pastors who are so unhealthy that they died
at a young age and and and and were in the last few years of
their life, not even effective at all for the cause of Jesus
Christ because they didn't take care of their health.
And a lot of church members fit into that same category.
You need to take care of these bodies.
You only get one you only you only get to live once.
Only one life to a soon be passed.
Only what's done for Christ will last.
So if you don't take care of this body that God gave you, the
things that you're able to accomplish for Jesus Christ are
going to be far less than what you could accomplish if you had
taken care of the body that he gave you.
Listen, I just turned 40 and it's like a switch went boot and
now I can't just eat anything I want.
I used to be able to actually started well before 40, but hey,
I'm on a diet right now. I'm trying to lose a little bit
of weight because I realized that if I let it go, I'm going
to, I'm going to end up dealing with health problems later on.
I'm going to end up not being as effective for the cause of Jesus
Christ as I could be. I want to present my body a
living sacrifice. It's not a sacrifice to let my
body run out of control, not a sacrifice to allow this body to
do what it wants to do. My body doesn't like to
exercise, but it's important for that to happen right now.
What is Paul saying First Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8
for bodily exercise. Profit is little.
There you go, I don't need to exercise doesn't do any good
anyway. He doesn't say don't exercise.
If you read the context of the passage, what he's talking about
is he's saying but godliness, Profit is profitable into all
things, so he's saying bother the exercise compared to
spiritual exercise is nothing. But he didn't say don't do it
right, and he just says that when it's compared to godliness,
it isn't worth much, but it is worth something.
It's going to allow me to serve God longer.
There are a lot of people who say they could quit this or quit
that at any time. I I drink Mountain Dew.
Yeah, I have a six pack of Mountain Dew a day.
But I can quit anytime I want. Then do it right.
Well, I smoke, but I can quit anytime I want.
Then do it. Yeah.
Okay. That changes things a little
bit, huh? Well, I just don't want to.
I don't want to quit. Right.
Hey, you know what a good exercise is?
Tell yourself no To something that is not bad for you.
Even just just to tell yourself no, right?
You want that fourth piece of cake.
Tell yourself no. I don't need to have it right.
Look at it and say no. I don't need you.
My dad used to tell. My dad used to do that.
Sometimes, you know, mosquito would be on his arm.
And I'm like, dad, you got a mosquito on your arm.
He's like, yeah, I know. It's fine.
He can bite me if he wants to. He's like, I got enough
selfcontrol not to scratch it after he bites me.
And I'm like, we'll kill it. At least, you know.
So I would do the same thing, right?
Let the mosquito bite you. And smack them when you're ready
to smack them. And then just look at the
mosquito bite. I mean, that's a silly thing,
but it's teaching you to say no to yourself.
It's a simple, simple thing. But but here's the here's,
here's where this comes into a spiritual aspect of that.
If you can't say no to your flesh when it comes to food or
junk or whatever else it is that you're putting into it, then
you're a whole lot less likely to say no to a temptation when
the devil throws it in front of your path, right.
If you can say no, I'm not going to eat that because I'm on a
diet and it's not good for me, then when the devil comes along
and says, hey, this is this is your thing, do this and it's a
whole lot easier to say no, I've got control over my body, I've
got control over myself. I don't have to do that.
And it's, I mean it is a small thing and that's why I say this
is the is the put this point last on purpose.
But when you tell yourself no to that extra piece of cake or to
that, you know, second helping of food or or whatever it is
you're teaching yourself selfcontrol, You don't have to
get crazy about it, but you ought to purify your health.
I think you go overboard too. You know, I'm not saying Lester
Roll Off went overboard, but Lester roll off was a was a was
a one of the most wellknown preachers in America in the 60s,
seventies, 80s got the guy ate onions like apples and then he
died in a plane crash when he was 60, you know what I mean?
So you just never know, right? But you can.
You can go overboard and and make a big deal about it and and
spend waste a lot of money that you don't need to be wasting on
that kind of stuff that you could be using for everything
else above. I understand all of that stuff,
but what I'm saying is you ought to think about it.
You ought to purify your health. The longer the the healthier you
are and the longer you live, and the longer you live healthy, the
more you're able to accomplish for Jesus Christ, what is our
text verse, say back in first John, chapter three, First John
chapter 3, and verse #3. I want you to see it one more
time as we close this morning. He says this and every man that
hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure.
Are you as pure as God is in your life right now?
I don't think anybody can say that.
In fact, if you do, I'm moving away because I don't want you
to. I don't.
I don't want to be part of the lightning bolt that you get hit
with. Not purify later.
Not should Purify, right? That means right now he is
purifying himself. Purifieth.
OK, man, we talked about this. Purifieth is in the present
tense. That means it's active.
It's it's happening right now and it's continuing to happen.
It's being done presently. Do you have that hope in Jesus
Christ? Are you?
Are you have that expectation? Are you looking forward to His
coming? Are you anticipating His coming?
You can't say that you are if you have not purified yourself.
Have you purified your heart? Are you purifying your heart?
Are you purifying your head? Are you purifying your hands?
Are you purifying your home or purifying your health?
See, everyone that has this hope, this anticipation, this
expectation that Jesus Christ is coming back is purifying
himself. Is that you this morning?
Are there things that you need to purify in your life?
If there are, then get them purified.
Because guess what? Jesus Christ could come back
today. I hope He does.
I hope he does. But if not, what have you lost
by being pure? Nothing.
He's coming back. It could be today, it could be
tomorrow. It could be 10 years from now.
But I want to be ready. If he does come back today, I
don't want to be found with my hand in the air.
Guilty. I want to be found busy only
been found working for him. I want to be found with a pure
heart. I want to be found with a pure
life. I want to be found doing
everything that he wants me to do.
Everyone that had this hope in him purifies himself even as he
is pure. When he shall appear.
Will you be pure? Will you be ready?
That's the question for you this morning.
Let's pray, Father. We love you.
You're gonna be. Thank you so much for your
goodness to us. I pray that this message was
encouraging but also convicting. God, it's convicting to me.
I, I I want to be pure. I want to be right.
I want to be holy before you and I pray the same for every single
person in here in God. If we need to make a decision
this morning, that here's an area that I need to work on,
here's an area that I need to work on purifying God.
I pray that you help us to make that decision this morning so
that we can be what you need us to be and what you want us to be
when you're coming back. And so that we can anticipate
and look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ with everything
we have in us because we're ready for you to come.
Pray that you use the message in our hearts this morning.
Convict us. Please, God, I pray in Jesus
name. Amen.
If you would please stand at your seats with heads about and
your eyes closed as the piano plays this morning, The
invitation is open. You can come.