A Purified Faith
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Introduction
Introduction
Purity in things??
Acceptable limits of certain impurities??
When it comes to the Gospel, how important is purity?
When people tell me they don’t believe in God, I like to ask them about God. Usually, there are several things that they’ve heard about God that aren’t biblical. Things which our traditions or our culture has allowed to infiltrate and corrupt the way people think about God.
This is why it is important to be aware of what we believe and what we teach.
Even more important is what our lives teach.
What does your life teach about Jesus?
Does it teach that your faith is a faith of commitment or of convenience?
Does it teach that Jesus calls us to a life of Christlike character or of cultural camouflage?
Does it teach that Jesus gives us righteousness or rage?
Has your faith been purified?
Moses, as he is preparing the second generation after the Exodus to enter into the Promised Land, encourages the people to have a purified faith.
A faith that will both honor God and represent Him in truth.
The first statement is a warning...
We are prone to idolatry.
We are prone to idolatry.
vv. 15-19
“Therefore...”
“Watch yourselves very carefully.”
Moses lays out these warning about creating graven images. An expansion of what was stated to the first generation in the Ten Commandments:
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
But, we all know how that well the Israelite children followed that commandment… as Moses was with God, Aaron, his brother, was left with the Israelites, they formed a golden calf and began worshiping it!
The display of God’s anger at their idolatry did not prevent them from future sin. All through the prophets are rebukes for their worship of other gods. Even calling them out for how foolish it was!
14 He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
The warnings are here because God knows that we are prone to idolatry.
Idolatry today looks different in our cultural setting.
Maybe you’ll walk into someone that grew up in a Hindu religion and you’ll see small gods set up. Or you might see a golden Buddha in the local Chinese buffet. In our western religious upbringing, idolatry looks different.
Our idolatry usually takes the form of chasing after the wrong things. We chase that which is tangible and temporary. We chase that which is concrete and controllable.
The four categories of idolatry: Pleasure, Power, Possessions, or Popularity.
We put our eyes on those things and then we chase after them.
Where it becomes idolatry is when those things replace God.
When they replace our commitment, our time, our affections that God alone deserve.
Idols dethrone God.
God purifies us.
God purifies us.
vv. 20-24
The ancient process of purification by fire is still used today.
The process was basically to melt the metal in a crucible and then skim off any impurities that would rise to the top.
Silver: 1,450
Gold: 1,950
Iron: 3,270
Moses compares Egypt to an iron smelting furnace.
For 400 years, God was seeking to prepare and purify His people.
This was in preparation for them to take possession of the Promised Land (v. 22).
Yet, they still stumbled along the way. They still fell in to the sin of idolatry. This was because Egypt was an insufficient experience.
Why did it fail? Because the people needed a better cleansing.
People need to be purified by God.
This is the first purification, the Gospel.
But, as we go through life, because we are prone to idolatry, we constantly need the Gospel.
This is what we call Sanctification.
Sanctification is the process of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ in our attitudes and in our actions.
A work of the Holy Spirit as we place ourselves in a position for Him to grow us by being in Scripture, in prayer, in community.
Sometimes God will use our circumstances in life.
We will experience uncomfortable times of purification.
This gives us hope for those times.
God redeems our suffering into sanctification.
The consuming fire that is God consumes all of you.
All parts of your life, even those you’d rather keep hidden from Him.
He wants to redeem the broken parts of you.
He wants to improve the godly parts of you.
He wants to purify the confused parts of you.
God will, if you let Him, make you whole.
You can receive mercy.
You can receive mercy.
vv. 25-31
We find all the judgment in vv. 26-27.
What is the goal of judgment?
Is it because God is mad?
Judgment is a form of discipline.
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
This leads to what we find in v. 29!
The goal of discipline is repentance.
Repentance leads to a life that is whole.
If you are going through a time of difficulty, through the smelting of sanctification, search after Him. Open yourself up to receiving difficult truths.
He does this because He cares.
God loves you too much to leave you where He found you.
He is a “merciful God.”
This means He is willing to forgive.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Fossil watch in the cattle lot.
Found it a year later, still working!
Not what I expected when I picked it up out of the dirt and muck.
Wiped it off, put a new watch band on it, and it was working fine!
In a lot of ways, that is what God does with us.
He finds us in the mud and much, He picks us up, but rather than just wiping us off, He makes us new.
Today, God wants to pick you up and make you clean and new.
He wants you to have a pure faith.
Today, would you open yourself up to the work of the Holy Spirit?
Maybe there is some impurities in your faith, in your character, in your walk with the Lord.
Maybe you need to be His, turning from your sin, receiving forgiveness.